PATNA:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who resigned on Wednesday and later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government is back again as Chief Minister.
The reason for Nitish Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Teshaswi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite Kumar’s exhortations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his honesty in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar’s JD(U) MLAs. After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.
Modi later told journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.
The JD(U)-BJP combine will now return to power after four years in the politically volatile state. Prodded by Kumar, the JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated head of the BJP’s campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. However, in no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi Yadav earlier had said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.
Earlier, citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejashwi, son of Lalu Prasad, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supremo rejected outright the demand for his son’s ouster. Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the CBI registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.
