NEW DELHI: As Nitish Kumar’s resignation left the much-showcased grand alliance in Bihar in tatters, the Congress central leadership reminded the JDU leader that he was supposed to lead an anti-BJP public mandate for five years and that the Congress will do everything within its means to honour that mandate.The political focus in Delhi is on whether Congress’ 27 MLAs will now remain united and whether JDU leaders such as Sharad Yadav and about a dozen Muslim-Yadav-Dalit MLAs resist Kumar’s alliance with BJP.While the speed with which Kumar plays his cards could dictate internal equations in JDU, the Congress knows for sure that the fate of the Bihar alliance will deliver a psychological jolt to the ongoing efforts to prop up an anti-BJP national alliance.It also remains to be seen whether JDU support to Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi will be withdrawn as well.While taking care to sugarcoat how Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi hold Kumar in “great respect and affection”, AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “We are disappointed by the news of resignation of Nitish Kumar… All of us must remember that the mandate given by people of Bihar is to policies, programmes and leadership of Mahagathbandhan for full five years”.“It is also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who challenged the honour (Asmita) of Bihar. Responsibility lies upon each one of us to respect this mandate.Congress Party will do everything within its means (to ensure) that this mandate is honoured,” he added. However, PM Modi’s quick “welcome back” message to Kumar and the latter’s “thank you” reply have convinced Congress leaders what they had been suspecting for quite some time. “We suspected Nitish Kumar and BJP have been hobnobbing with each other for some time,” said a Congress leader.Since Kumar had informed an AICC functionary just before he publically announced his decision to quit, the Congress leadership is expected to play out the mandatory “peace efforts for some time” to show it made every possible effort to save the “anti-BJP mandate”.Yet Lalu Prasad’s strong public statement, attacking Kumar and ruling out his son Tejashwi’s resignation just before the CM quit, is being interpreted as the RJD chief ’s awareness of Kumar’s eventual departure. An influential section of Congress had always been against the party backing Kumar, saying Nitish will eventually make his “ghar wapsi” to the BJP side.At the same time, the party is also concerned about how the ongoing probes on Yadav and his children will play out as BJP and the Centre are trying to make it a “crusade against corruption”.