Ex-CM Nitish Kumar alleges BJP conspiring to topple JD-U Government in Bihar (Update/Nitish Kumar)

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and former chief minister Nitish Kumar, alleged on Saturday that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the NDA Government at the Centre, is hatching a conspiracy to topple the JD (U)-led Bihar Government.

Kumar, who broke 17-year-old alliance with the BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi was made the latter party's election campaign head and prime ministerial nominee, resigned following his party's electoral reverses in Bihar during the parliament polls which caused dissent among his party.

The BJP, Bihar's main opposition party, and JD-U rebel legislators have extended support to two independent candidates against the JD-U nominee for the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) election, making the contest close.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party believes that if this (Bihar) government continues to work efficiently, it would create a problem for them. They want to topple this government by any means, including taking recourse to conspiracy. They want to make this bye-election their test case," Kumar said in Patna.

Kumar sought his arch-rival Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and others parties to support his candidates to thwart 'BJP designs to dislodge the government'.

"I appeal to other parties such as Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress party and the Communist Party of India (CPI) to give their support to two candidates of the Janata Dal (United)," Kumar added.

The JD-U heads a minority government in Bihar and Rajya Sabha polls is on June 19.