‘He left his shawl, turned car around’: Rahul mocks Nitish’s U-turn in Bihar

Patna: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and said: "A little pressure is exerted, and he (Nitish Kumar) takes a U-turn."

Addressing a gathering in Purnea during his ongoing "Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra," Rahul said: “The ‘Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) will fight for social justice in Bihar; we don't require Nitish Kumar for that purpose, we don't require him at all.”

Congress is part of the ‘Mahagathbandhan', which is now in Opposition in the state and also includes Lalu Prasad's RJD and the Left parties. "I want to share a joke doing the rounds about your chief minister. After the swearing-in ceremony, while your chief minister was returning to his residence, he realised that he had left his shawl at the Governor’s house. When he went back to take his shawl, a surprised Governor said: 'You are back so soon.'"

On Sunday, Nitish Kumar walked out of the Opposition alliance and returned to the NDA fold. He resigned as Mahagathbandhan chief minister and within hours took oath again as head of the NDA government in the state with the BJP.

The Congress had reacted sharply to the JD(U) chief's U-turn and had said: "Nitish Kumar is giving tough competition to chameleons in changing colours."

Nitish has changed sides four times in the last 11 years earning the dubious distinction of being called the "Paltu Ram" of state politics. Nitish had left the BJP alliance in 2013 for the first time and returned to the NDA in 2017. He again dumped the BJP in 2022 to return to Mahagathbandhan in 2024.