Bihar grand alliance will last till ’24; deputy CM may land in jail: Sushil Modi

PATNA: The new grand alliance in Bihar will last only till 2024 and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav could soon go to jail for corruption, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi told TOI in an interview on Friday.

“Lalu doesn’t trust Nitish. Still, for their personal interests, they are likely to stick together for around a year. The 2024 general elections will also come knocking at the doors by then. Nitish will finally see his dream come true by contesting as PM candidate, if at all other Opposition parties agree on it,” said SuMo.

“Then, they will face a massive debacle as BJP will again come out victorious. Thereafter, they will finally fall apart. Besides, they will keep trying to break each other’s party throughout their “unholy” alliance,” predicted the former deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Once considered the key contact person in BJP for CM Nitish Kumar, SuMo said the separation of BJP from JD(U) in Bihar was an isolated case and it would not have any impact on 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as on relations with other allies in the country.

Speaking on Tejashwi’s future in Bihar, Modi said that he could soon land in jail. “Tejashwi is chargesheeted and on bail in IRCTC hotel-for-land scam. He owns 53 benami properties. A person on bail with so much corruption is bound to go behind bars anytime,” he said.

Recalling the days before the alliance broke, SuMo said the BJP had reached out to de-facto JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar to sort out any misunderstanding between the partners.

“Amit Shah had called Nitish two days before he broke ties with us. He asked Nitish if there was any issue. Nitish said everything is fine, adding that like Giriraj Singh speaks in BJP, so does JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh at times,” SuMo added.