The BJP on Tuesday asserted that the NDA would contest the forthcoming Assembly elections under the leadership of chief minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar and once again form the government.

“We will contest the elections and form the NDA government in the state under the leadership of Nitish Kumar once again. The NDA will win the polls and take Bihar ahead on the path of development,” Union minister for housing, urban affairs, and power, Manohar Lal Khattar said.

He also gave a slogan for the Assembly polls: “Bihar hai taiyyar, fir se NDA sarkar (Bihar is ready, NDA government once more).”

Khattar was in Patna as the party’s Bihar state council in-charge and observer for the organisational elections. He made Dilip Kumar Jaiswal the Bihar unit president, who was elected unopposed at the state council meeting.

His statement came as a soothing balm for the ruling alliance amid increasing pressure by Nitish’s JDU to declare him as the chief ministerial face for the elections that are expected to be held in October-November this year.

Khattar’s comment also came on the heels of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former chief minister Rabri Devi extending an open offer to Nitish in the legislative Council to “leave the BJP so that we could come together”.

Even Nitish’s son Nishant Kumar, expected to enter politics in the coming months, appealed to the NDA to announce him (Nitish) as the chief ministerial candidate. He had also declared that his father was completely fit amid speculations that he could be suffering from dementia.

Sources also said that a senior bureaucrat close to Nitish had recently met RJD president Lalu and his family at their residence for around three hours as an emissary.

Although the topic of discussion is still shrouded in mystery, some politicians took it as a pressure tactics, while others pointed out that Nitish has turned his skill of effortless somersault from one alliance to another as an asset, especially in the current shape of Bihar politics where neither the ruling NDA nor the opposition Mahagathbandhan can do without him.

Meanwhile, the JDU leaders expressed happiness over Khattar’s announcement.

“Everything has already been decided. The NDA will contest the Assembly polls with Nitish as its face. The people of Bihar will give their mandate to the alliance and he will become the chief minister again. The top leaders of all our allied parties have already rallied behind him as the next chief minister,” JDU spokesperson Abhishek Jha told The Telegraph.

However, a couple of JDU leaders were still wary and pointed out that Khattar’s words would not weigh much unless Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah approved it.

In the present NDA government, the BJP has 80 MLAs, followed by JDU with 45. The Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular has four MLAs while one independent MLA is also with the alliance.

There have been increasing indications of friction between the BJP and the JDU in the past couple of months, which were exacerbated by the expansion of Nitish’s cabinet last week.

All the seven new ministers inducted into the cabinet were from the BJP. The move reeked of bullying and was seen as an attempt by the saffron party to extract its pound of flesh and to establish itself as the ‘big brother’ in a state where it has so far been in power only in alliance with Nitish and has functioned under his shadow.

Additionally, it was also taken as an effort to poach on the castes that have been supporting Nitish since 2005. Five of the seven ministers hailed from the other backward castes and extremely backward castes, including Kurmi and Kushwaha, which claim to be descendants of Luv and Kush, the twin sons of Lord Ram, respectively. Nitish hails from the Kurmi caste, and the Kushwahas have supported him wholeheartedly.