A day after five Janata Dal (United) MLAs from Manipur merged with the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday wondered if it was ‘constitutional’ and affirmed that the opposition will unite for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“When we parted ways from NDA, all our six Manipur MLAs came and met us. They assured us that they were with JDU. We need to think about what is going on. They are breaking away the MLAs from the parties, is it constitutional?,” said CM Nitish Kumar.

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Kumar further added, “Opposition will unify for 2024 elections.”

The saffron party leader Sushil Kumar Modi, on Saturday, claimed that the state has become JDU-free. Taking to Twitter, Sushil Modi said, “After Arunachal, Manipur is also JDU free. Very soon Laluji will make Bihar also JDU free.”

On Friday, giving a big jolt to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party, five Janata Dal (United) MLAs from Manipur merged with the ruling party BJP.

As per the statement issued by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat, the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly is pleased to accept the merger of five JD(U) MLAs with the BJP under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.

These names include Joykishan Singh, Ngursanglur Sanate, and Md. Achab Uddin, Thangjam Arunkumar and LM Khaute.

The Saffron Party had secured a majority of 32 seats in the 60-member state Assembly in the recently held Assembly elections, results of which were declared on March 10.

On 25 August 2022, the lone JDU MLA From Arunachal Pradesh Techi Kaso also joined the BJP in the presence of national president JP Nadda and Arunachal CM Pema Khandu. With this now BJP stands at 49 out of 60 Assembly seats (MLA).

The latest political developments come weeks after Nitish Kumar dumped the BJP and joined hands with Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and other parties to govern Bihar.

In 2020 the BJP-JD(U) fought election in an alliance and went on to form the government with Nitish Kumar being given the chief minister’s post.

In less than two years’ time, Nitish Kumar flipped his side and in a surprise move went on to stitch an alliance with RJD and Congress to form a ‘Grand Alliance’ government in Bihar.