Is the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on way to quit the NDA ahead of the upcoming Bihar assembly polls? The story is gaining ground with the party president Chirag Paswan regularly joining the Opposition mounting heavy attacks on chief minister Nitish Kumar over one issue after another and also questioning the move of his own allies.

In a fresh move, Chirag joined the Opposition in attacking the Nitish Kumar government after a link road to a bridge which was inaugurated by the chief minister barely a month back was washed away by the floodwaters on Wednesday. The Opposition alleges that a portion of the 1.4 km-long bridge constructed at a cost of about Rs 264 crore in Gopalganj district was washed away by the floodwaters while the government refutes the allegations saying it was only an approach road to the bridge that has collapsed.

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Strangely, Chirag too has refused to believe the government’s claim about the collapse of only a link road and mounted heavy attacks on the Nitish Kumar government. He also mocked the “zero tolerance” claim of the Nitish Kumar government. “Part of a bridge built at a cost of Rs 264 crore has collapsed today. Any work done with public money should be carried out maintaining quality standards. Incidents like this raise questions in the public eye over zero corruption,” Chirag tweeted, demanding a high-level probe to bring the culprits to book.

264 करोड़ की लागत से बने पुल का एक हिस्सा आज ध्वस्त हो गया है।जनता के पैसे से किया कोई भी कार्य पूरी गुणवत्ता से किया जाना चाहिए था।इस तरह की घटनायें जनता की नजर में ZERO CORRUPTION पर सवाल उठाती है।लोजपा माँग करती है की उच्च स्तरीय जाँच कर जल्द दोषियों पर कड़ी कार्यवाही करे। pic.twitter.com/DaWbENTVo9

— युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) July 16, 2020

Chirag launched frontal attacks on the state government shortly after Bihar Opposition leader and RJD legislator Tejashwi Yadav took potshots at the Nitish Kumar government over “collapse of the bridge” and alleged how all-round corruption had dealt a severe blow to the development projects in the state. He also mocked how rats were blamed for drinking tons of alcohol when seized liquor stocks were found missing from the police storehouses.

Last week, Chirag had joined the Opposition’s chorus in seeking postponement of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar citing the Corona pandemic. “The Election Commission should take a decision with a lot of deliberations. It should not happen that a huge population is put into danger. Polling percentage may also be very low if elections are held amid this pandemic which is not good for democracy,” Chirag had said. He also explained how the entire country is currently affected by Coronavirus and thus holding elections in such a situation could put an extra financial burden on the state. “All members of our party parliamentary board have expressed concern over this situation,” he added.

Earlier, the LJP had fired its Munger district president just when he had given a statement to the media that the NDA is “intact” in Bihar. While hurriedly removing the leader from the post, the party leadership said a district president had no right to make such comments and charged him with encroaching into the jurisdiction of the national party president. Although the BJP dismisses any cracks in the NDA, the situation has virtually gone out of the control, feel observers.