PURNEA, March 18 -- Chief minister Nitish Kumar's pending exit from Bihar after his election to the Rajya Sabha has opened state politics to various possibilities. One could be the realignment of hunt for and voting tilt of minority votes, especially in the Seemanchal region. Monday's Rajya Sabha polls, in which the All India Majlise Ittehadul Muslimeem (AIMIM) backed the RJD candidate, have hinted that they are able to bury their differences, the RJD and AIMIM may join hands to face the BJP-led likely future dispensation in the state. One more reason for such a possibility is the exit of Nitish Kumar from Bihar politics itself. Nitish has been a leader of high secular credentials and trusted and followed by a wide section of Muslims. The vacuum in his absence will present an opportunity to RJD and AIMIM to fill. During Monday's polls, while one RJD MLA abstained from voting, three Congress legislators did so, making the grand old party a suspect, even though those who opted out of voting are said to have history of party hopping. Meanwhile, all five AIMIM MLAs voted for the RJD candidate. A senior RJD leader, not revealing his name, hinted that there is possibility of RJD-AIMIM tango in future. "See both the parties are claimants of Muslim votes and they also want to defeat the communal forces. It will be in their interest if they come together, but their leaders have to take call on this," he said. RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari, however, while talking to HT, was not forthright. He repeated that the top party leadership will decide about future alliances in the state. But, he admitted that the party was committed to "fight against BJP" and that it would take the decision to make sure that it happens. AIMIM's Bihar unit chief Akhtarul Iman too spoke of "fight against BJP" in Bihar and party's commitment to it. He said that his party's support to the RJD during the RS polls was reflective of such a commitment and that any future course of action (on alliances) will be decided in future. But he insisted that his party's stance of supporting the RJD candidate in the RS polls must bury the impression about the AIMIM that "it's a B team of the BJP." Political observers too read a 'shift' in political equation after Nitish' exit and possibility of parties like AIMIM and RJD finding a joint cause. "AIMIM's support to RJD will help the party to come out of the stigma as B party of BJP in Bihar," a political observer, Prof N K Srivasatava, posted at Purnea University told HT over phone. "The RS election will help AIMIM to emerge as a pan-Bihar party. Till now the party has been confined within Seemanchal districts," he said....