Bihar: Bihar’s leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s claim, made on Friday, that the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government would fall in the next two to three months has been rejected by the ruling alliance and it has targeted the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader instead for remaining missing from his constituency during the pandemic. Yadav made the sensational claim during a visit to his assembly constituency of Raghopur, where he was shown black flags by the PappuYaday-led Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) workers for his continued absence during the pandemic. They had earlier put up a banner declaring the MLA had gone “missing” from his constituency.

The RJD’s leader’s statement comes close on the heels of the factional feud in the LokJanshakti Party and ahead of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s return to the state capital in July.

RJD’s ally Congress said Tejashwi’s statement “carried weight”. “The leader of the opposition’s claim carries weight. NDA leaders are in touch with us as they are not pleased with the government,” party leader Kuntal Krishna said.

However, the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) dismissed Yadav’s claim.

“No power in the world can bring down Nitish Kumar’s government for five years. If TejashwiYadav is claiming to be in touch with some JD-U MLAs, then many RJD MLAs are in touch with us. But, at this time we will not say anything more than this because politics is also considered a game of possibilities,” said JD-U MLC UpendraKushwaha.

The JD (U) had earlier claimed that Congress MLAs in the state are ready to defect.

BJP leader and spokesperson PremRanjan Patel suggested that Tejashwi first needed to sort out questions over his own leadership. “Yadav has nothing to do with the people of Bihar or the people of his own area. The people of the area had even put up a poster of the missing MLA. When people needed them, they did not go... and now they have come. They are dreaming that the government is going to fall in two to three months. But his dream will remain a dream,” said Patel.