As the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to fall short of majority, the INDIA bloc parties asked NDA allies N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United to join them.
RJD national spokesperson Manoj Kumar Jha also recalled the forecast of Kumar, who heads the JD-U, that "those who came to power will be ousted in 2024", and the efforts he made in laying the foundation of the INDIA bloc.
"We have been, formerly, in alliance with both Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu. We know they share a dislike for vendetta politics which the BJP stands for. Narendra Modi seems to be on his way out. We are hopeful that the two leaders will play a crucial role in the change of guard at the Centre," Jha told reporters in Patna.
Asked whether leaders of his party, including national president Lalu Prasad and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, were in touch with Kumar, Jha cryptically replied "those who need to contact him are talking to him. Our leader Tejashwi Yadav has been saying for some time that Nitish Kumar will take a big decision around June 4".
He also made it clear, "I am making no appeal to Nitish Kumar or Chandrababu Naidu. I am only expressing my hope, given the understanding I have of their temperament".
Taking to his social media handle on X, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj reposed his faith in the TDP and the JD-U leadership to prevent the BJP from forming its government.
"Interesting facts - In 2019, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu visited all opposition leaders to unite them against Modi and in 2024 Mr Nitish Kumar visited all opposition leaders to unite them against Modi. Now, over to them," he wrote alongside a picture of the two leaders shaking hands.
Notably, the JD-U has put up a better than expected performance in Lok Sabha polls, establishing a lead in 14 out of the 16 seats it had contested, surpassing the BJP which had fought 17 but was trailing in five of these.
The Telugu Desam Party was leading on 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh.
In Bihar, the INDIA bloc was leading in only eight out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats but Jha was confident that the numbers would look up for the coalition in the state, even as he complained about the tardy pace of counting.
