'Kingmaker' should...: Tejashwi after sharing flight with Nitish

With National Democratic Alliance and INDIA bloc scheduling separate meetings of alliance partners in Delhi on Wednesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his arch rival Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav left for the national capital on the same flight from Patna airport, sources said.

Speaking with media after landing in New Delhi, Tejashwi Yadav asked people to "wait and watch."

Yadav said their interaction in the flight was limited to exchanging courtesies.

Asked if the opposition is looking at getting the numbers to stake claim for government formation, Yadav said, "We have come for the meeting today. Have patience, wait and watch what happens."

Yadav also said that Bihar has emerged as "kingmaker" in this election, and hoped that the "kingmaker" will ensure that the new government gives a special status to Bihar, conducts caste census across the country, and to put 75 percent reservation given by Bihar in the ninth schedule of the Constitution, which will exempt it from judicial review.

"Bihar has emerged as the kingmaker. Whichever government comes, the kingmaker should ensure that Bihar gets a special status, the 75 per cent reservation we gave, that should be brought under Schedule 9, and caste census should be conducted across the country," he said.

He also hailed the Samajwadi Party candidate's victory in Faizabad.

"We won Ayodhya. Prime Minister used hate speech against Muslims. Ram ji also taught him a lesson," he said.

"We are happy people of the country have voted to save Constitution and to give a lesson to the autocratic regime. The people of this country don't like politics of hatred. In last 10 years, Modi did not give any account of his work, so people taught a lesson," he said.

Kumar, whose NDA-allied Janata Dal-United has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation as the Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own, while the INDIA bloc is also sending feelers to him.

Tejashwi Yadav's RJD, an INDIA bloc partner, has secured four Lok Sabha seats. 

Kumar had during the weekend visited Delhi and met top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other NDA partners in Bihar -- Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) -- have won five and one seats each respectively.

Yadav, before leaving for Delhi, told reporters, "RJD has increased its number of seats in Parliament and garnered over one crore votes. Our performance has been very good. We had contested the elections on real issues. The INDIA bloc got the blessings of Lord Ram. One thing is very clear... the Modi factor is now finished. The BJP is now dependent on its allies for majority."

"We will obviously try," he said, while responding to a query on whether the INDIA bloc will try to form the government.

Meanwhile, Paswan and his winning MPs called on Kumar in the morning and "congratulated him and sought his blessings".

INDIA bloc leaders will meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence Wednesday evening to decide on the strategy to form the government.

Opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, M K Stalin, Champai Soren, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, Sitaram Yechury, and D Raja are likely to attend the meeting, along with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.