Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar hit back at his newly acquired opponents on Wednesday for the first time after switching sides to head the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state.

The Janata Dal (United) stalwart slammed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

He said he urged the Congress and other members of the Opposition's alliance to not name the political group INDIA. Justifying his move to join the NDA, Nitish accused the alliance of inaction regarding finalising seat-sharing agreements for the Lok Sabha election.

“I was suggesting a different name for INDIA, but they (the Congress) had decided it on their own. I said okay, but now you see its condition. I was making so much effort, but they did not do a single thing. Have they decided till now about which party will contest how many seats? So I left it,” Nitish said.

The chief minister, who also happens to be the JDU national president, asserted that he has returned to the alliance with which he used to be previously.

“Now I will remain with it (NDA) forever. I keep working for the development of Bihar and will remain engaged in it always in the interest of everybody,” the chief minister added while talking to reporters after inaugurating a state-of-the-art "emergency response centre" and a "decision support system" at Sardar Patel Bhavan in Patna, which would help better communication and coordination with various districts and departments during disasters.

Nitish, after quitting NDA and forming the Grand Alliance government in the state in August 2022, had worked whole-heartedly to bring the Opposition parties across the country on one platform to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming Lok Sabha poll.

His efforts resulted in the formation of INDIA, but he was sidelined and the allies accepted none of his suggestions, especially the Congress, which took charge of the alliance.

The chief minister slammed Rahul for trying to take credit for the caste-based survey in Bihar. The Congress leader had claimed at a public rally in Purnea on Tuesday during his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that the survey had been done on his suggestions.

“Can there be anything more bogus than this (claim of Rahul)? He has forgotten when and how the caste-based survey was conducted. We decided to get it done at a meeting of nine political parties. I had been talking about it in 2019 and 2020, and had gone to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi about it,” Nitish said.

“They (the Centre) had informed us that they would not do anything right now, but had indirectly suggested that we could conduct it ourselves. I then called everybody and did it. I had taken into confidence the Opposition (the BJP) in the state at that time. I had done everything (in the caste-based survey). They are falsely taking the credit,” he added.

Nitish also lambasted the RJD and its leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav for trying to take credit for the development done in the state in the last 17 months of Grand Alliance rule.