A day before the crucial floor test of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar, a heavy security cordon was imposed around the residence of the Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, in Patna. This move came amid huddles and shifting of MLAs to secure locations ahead of the trust vote.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alleged that police personnel attempted to enter Tejashwi's residence and orchestrate incidents against party MLAs. The party expressed its determination to fight the ongoing "ideological struggle" and condemned the actions of the police, stating that they had surrounded Tejashwi's residence from all sides.
RJD spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav criticized the police deployment, stating that such an action had never occurred in any state in independent India. He questioned why the police would surround Tejashwi's residence during a legislative meeting but not interfere when similar meetings were held by the BJP.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain defended the police deployment, stating that the police were merely doing their job in response to complaints from relatives of MLAs who had been kidnapped or were being held against their will. Hussain emphasized that all NDA MLAs were together and that the Opposition was spreading canards about missing legislators.
Earlier, the police visited Tejashwi's residence after receiving reports that an RJD MLA had been kidnapped. However, the police left after RJD leaders raised slogans upon their arrival.
The trust vote will follow after Nitish took the oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the ninth time, having ditched his alliance with the RJD and formed a government with the BJP. Nitish's decision came after he was reportedly upset at not being named the convenor of INDIA, an Opposition bloc he had helped to establish.
With 128 MLAs in the 243-member House, the NDA needs 122 votes to pass the majority mark.