Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday resigned to leave the existing one-and-a-half-year-old grand coalition government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and switch back to the BJP fold to remain in power for a ninth term.
Kumar is likely to take oath as CM again this evening in the presence of BJP President JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Kumar communicated his decision to JDU MLAs who gathered at his residence in Patna in the morning before going to Raj Bhavan accompanied by senior party leader Bijendra Yadav to submit his resignation letter to Governor Rajendra V Arlekar. The governor accepted Kumar’s resignation and asked him to continue in office until the formation of the new government.
Meanwhile, the BJP legislative party meeting met in the morning and unanimously passed a resolution supporting the JDU in forming the government in Bihar. Earlier, party leaders met Nitish Kumar at his residence to formally extend support to JDU to form the government.
A dejected Congress and RJD said they knew it was coming because Nitish Kumar had recorded somersaults to switch political parties.
Kumar’s move was also a major setback for the larger opposition unity of the INDIA bloc, which has so far been unable to find its feet as the TMC and AAP has also decided to run independently in West Bengal and Punjab.
This is the fourth time that Nitish Kumar has acrimoniously parted ways and returned to the BJP fold. In June 2013, he severed ties with the BJP and filed a secular suit against the appointment of then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as Prime Minister ahead of the general elections the following year.
