Patna: The ruling grand alliance in Bihar appears headed for trouble, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress mounting heavy attacks on chief minister Nitish Kumar for lending support to the BJP-led NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind against the opposition choice, Meira Kumar.

Incidentally, both candidates happen to be Dalits and have strong Bihar connections. While Kovind served as the governor of Bihar before being nominated for the country’s top constitutional post, former Lok Sabha Speaker Kumar hails from Bhojpur district.

The continuing feud withing the grand alliance — comprising the RJD, Janata Dal United (D-U) and the Congress — took a serious turn on Monday when the Congress launched a frontal attack on the chief minister, virtually questioning his “credentials” for supporting the NDA candidate despite being head of the grand alliance.

This was the first time the Congress publicly censured the chief minister for his “vacillating” stand.

“The chief minister has been working to defeat Meira Kumar who incidentally happens to be the ‘daughter of Bihar’. People who believe in one principle make one decision but those who believe in many principles make different decisions,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media on Monday.

Azad’s remarks came after the chief minister admonished the opposition alliance for fielding “Daughter of Bihar” to lose.

The RJD also launched its sharpest attack on the CM for supporting a rival candidate.

“With our opportunistic behavior or political manipulations, we may score a few goals, make or break governments but history shall bear witness to the fact that when people needed us to strengthen the cause of progressive and people-centered politics, we decided to look the other way,” Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav said in his “Dil Ki Baat”, obliquely referring to the chief minister on Sunday evening.

“Dil Ki Baat” is a series of columns that he shares on the social media, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Mann Ki Baat”.

Tejashwi is son of RJD president Lalu Prasad.

This was the second time in three days that Tejashwi hit out at the chief minister. “Sticking to ideology is more important than always thinking about victory. The RJD had never compromised with ideology,” Tejashwi said on Friday shortly after the chief minister had reprimanded the opposition alliance for adopting a “loser’s strategy” for the “daughter of Bihar”.

The JD-U which is headed by the chief minister Kumar has warned its partner against crossing the line of decency or be ready to face serious consequences. “We find an open violation of coalition dharma. This must be checked or there will have serious consequences,” warned state JD-U chief Vashishtha Narayan Singh, asking the RJD not to “dictate”.

Another senior JD-U leader and party spokesperson Sanjay Singh charged RJD president Prasad of instigating his leaders to hurl abuses at the chief minister. “It looks like Lalu Prasad is instigating his men to hit out at our leader. We too can react…we are not cowards,” warned Singh, claiming the grand alliance won the elections on the face of chief minister.

The JD-U also sought the expulsion of RJD leaders making derogatory remarks against the chief minister to restore normalcy in the grand alliance.