Nitish Kumar remained cloistered in his Patna residence on Wednesday meeting leaders close to him and purveying the changed scenario where his JDU is now the BJP’s junior partner.

The JDU has won 43 seats to the BJP’s 74. In 2015, it had won 28 more seats.

A JDU source said Nitish was unhappy at the way the Lok Janshakti Party had eaten into his vote base and the fact that the BJP had not taken assertive steps to rein in Chirag Paswan, who had launched a scathing attack on the chief minister and vowed to pull him down while declaring allegiance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The LJP cut away a massive number of votes in almost every constituency our party contested. We would have won at least 30 more seats had this not happened. Our leader is aware of the fact and also that the BJP did not do much to stop Chirag Paswan from doing so,” the JDU source said.