Speculation about another political somersault by Nitish Kumar gained ground on Thursday when Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad expressed a willingness to reunite with the Janata Dal United leader and Bihar chief minister.

“My doors are always open for Nitish Kumar. He is the chief minister and should also keep his doors open. He runs away. He exits. This does not reflect well on him,” Lalu told reporters at his home.

“We do take decisions (on various issues), but we will keep him with us if he comes. Why won’t we keep him with us if he comes? He should stay with us and work.”

The former chief minister added that he would “forgive” Nitish (his past desertions) because it was his responsibility to do so.

Nitish sidestepped journalists’ questions on Lalu’s comments with a cryptic reply, strengthening the impression that something was brewing ahead of the Assembly elections, expected towards the end of the year.

“Kya bol rahe hain! Chhodiye isko (What are you saying! Let it go),” the Janata Dal United chief minister said.

Later, at the swearing-in of the new Bihar governor, Arif Mohammad Khan, Nitish sidestepped similar queries with a “namaskar” and smiles. But the obvious warmth he showed while meeting Lalu added fuel to the speculation.

While talking to reporters at his home, however, Lalu had somewhat enigmatically also expressed hope that his younger son Tejashwi would become chief minister of the state this year. He did not elaborate.

Tejashwi, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, had recently asserted that the RJD’s doors were closed to Nitish.

Buffeted by reporters’ queries after Lalu’s latest comments, he tried to play them down saying his father’s remarks were intended to “cool you people down because you keep asking him so many questions”.

Sources in various parties in the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan said the roots of the latest developments lay in a clandestine meeting Lalu and Nitish held at the chief minister’s residence in December.

What was discussed at the meeting remains unknown. However, RJD sources said Lalu had reminded Nitish how the BJP and the then Lok Janshakti Party led by Chirag Paswan had connived during the 2020 Assembly elections to cut him down despite being his allies.

It had resulted in the JDU winning just 43 seats in the 243-member Assembly and slipping to a junior position in relation to the BJP.

“Our leader (Lalu) believes that the BJP and the LJP are common enemies of the RJD and the JDU, and it’s time to up the ante against them,” a senior RJD leader told this newspaper.

There is speculation that the BJP is looking to ease out Nitish — who has not been in the best of health and at times seems forgetful — after the Assembly elections.

Although Union home minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders have asserted that Nitish would lead the NDA into the Bihar elections, they have desisted from saying categorically that he would be the next chief minister.

“Nitish Kumar’s Delhi visit in December-end may have been to discuss an exit deal. We have heard he may be awarded the Bharat Ratna and a senior constitutional position that does not involve day-to-day administrative and political responsibilities,” a source in the NDA said.

To many, the question is whether Nitish would accept such an exit. If he considers the offer humiliating, he might choose to quit the NDA.

A dab hand at justifying his serial U-turns, Nitish will have his reasons ready if he pulls off another one: his quest for a caste census and enhanced caste reservations, actions and statements by BJP leaders that he can portray as detrimental to communal harmony, and Shah’s purported “insult” of B.R. Ambedkar.

Much, however, depends on how far the BJP is ready to go to retain Nitish’s support.

With its 12 Lok Sabha members, the JDU is one of the two main crutches propping up the Narendra Modi government — denied a majority in last year’s general election – the other being the Telugu Desam Party. Since the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has tried to keep Nitish in good humour.

The Congress has backed Lalu’s overtures to Nitish.

“All the Gandhivadis in the country are together if they separate themselves from the Godsevadis,” the Congress legislature party leader in the Assembly, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, said.

“Nitish Kumar believes in Gandhi and keeps his teachings on the seven sins on his work table.”