Patna, April 2: Devesh Chandra Thakur, a former minister in Nitish Kumar's 2005 cabinet, today joined the BJP at a programme where other leaders attacked the chief minister terming him opportunistic.

Devesh, once close to Nitish and considered a fundraiser of the JDU, had resigned from the party last year after he was denied a ticket in the Lok Sabha elections. Since then, he was an Independent MLC. Today, as he joined the BJP at SK Memorial Hall - the venue packed with his supporters from north Bihar districts - the party leaders launched an attack on Nitish and called him an opportunist.

Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav, Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav attacked Nitish for sitting on RJD chief Lalu Prasad's lap to ensure his government's survival.

Taking the lead, Sushil Modi said: "Nitish has become so desperate for his political existence that in the name of the Janata parivar merger, he has even visited Tihar jail to meet INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, who is convicted in the teachers' recruitment scam. During his recent visit to Delhi, Nitish met Arvind Kejriwal and Sonia Gandhi. He uploaded his picture with Kejriwal but was afraid to upload photos of his visit to the Tihar jail."

He emphasised no alliance - gathbandhan or mahagathbandhan - could stop the Narendra Modi force in Bihar because what the current NDA government has given the state in the past 10 months, the Congress government could not in their 10 years.

There had been noise about Devesh joining the BJP since he quit the JDU last year. On several occasions, he even attended BJP functions. Close to Nitish earlier, today he called his former boss arrogant.

Sources said Devesh, a businessman in Mumbai, had generated funds for the JDU's Adhikar Rally in Patna and Delhi and was also a key person in the 2010 Bihar Divas celebrations held in the country's financial capital. He said: "I have always worked for the JDU but the party never returned the favour."

Nand Kishore said: "The JDU and RJD leadership are interested in the merger as they are fighting for their political existence. The Janata parivar leaders have no vision for the state's development."

Ram Kripal, once the right-hand man of Lalu who joined BJP for being denied a RJD ticket to the Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat, also took up the opportunity to attack Nitish and his former boss. "The Janata parivar is without the janata (people) and consists only of parivar (family). The leaders part of the Janata parivar are a bunch of opportunists," said Ram Kripal, who defeated Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti in the 2014 general election.