In Photos: How Nitish Kumar Went From ‘Will Rather Die’ To ‘Will Stay Together’

"We will stay together. Eight leaders took oath as ministers today and the rest will be inducted soon. Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha have been appointed as Deputy Chief Ministers..." Nitish Kumar after being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time at Raj Bhavan on Sunday, January 28.

“Mar jana qubool hai unke saath jana qubool nahi (Would rather die than go with them) ,” Nitish Kumar said when asked about possibility of realigning with BJP- January 30, 2023.

“...aap logon ke liye BJP ke darwaze humesha ke liye band ho chuke hain (for you all, the doors to BJP are forever closed),” Amit Shah said, referring to Nitish Kumar and his party members, during a rally in Bihar in April 2023.

“All the people we have here are our friends. We are different, you are different. Does it mean our friendship will end? You will remain connected to me as long as I live. We will all work together,” Nitish Kumar said referring to BJP leaders at an event in October 2023.

“Hum logon ne apne siddhant ki khatir ek nirnay liya hai, jis prakar se desh ka vatavaran bigadhne ki koshish ho rahi hai, in dino be mausam ki yatrayein, dharmik juloos, parikrama, na jane kya ho raha hai… (We have taken the decision for the sake of our principles, the kind of negative environment being propagated these days with untimely religious processions and events, we have no idea what is going on.),” Nitish Kumar on quitting the NDA alliance in 2013.

When asked in an exclusive The Indian Express interview in 2017, if Nitish Kumar was going to have his “ghar wapsi” with BJP as many speculated, he laughed it off saying “height hai”. In his interview he added, “Hindustan ki zarurat hai opposition unity ki…jis din opposition unity qayem hogi main nahi samajhta hoon…aap jo keh rahe hain chidambaram sahab fearless…aree kaun darega in logon (BJP) se (Right now, India needs a united opposition…the day we have unity in the opposition, I understand that…you know how you say we have to be fearless Chidambaram sahab…who even is scared of them)?