Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who resigned on Wednesday evening, is all set to be back in the saddle with new ally the BJP on Thursday, as the political events moved
swiftly, dashing the hopes of Opposition unity ahead of the 2019 lok Sabha polls. Nitish is likely to take oath as NDA Chief Minister on Thursday at 5 pm.
In what appeared to be a prepared script, the BJP wasted no time in moving in to embrace Nitish. Within two hours of Nitish dumping the Mahagathbhandan, BJP MlAs and its senior leaders were dining at the Chief Minister’s residence, celebrating the homecoming of the Janata Dal(U) supremo and electing him as the NDA leader.
Senior BJP leader, Sushil Kumar Modi, whose relentless expose into lalu Prasad’s family alleged corrupt deeds, forced Nitish to part ways with the RJD, said his party has decided to extend support to Nitish. State BJP chief Nityanand Rai and Modi drove to Raj Bhavan and handed over the letter of support. Modi was present at the CM’s residence till late at night.
When asked if he would return as the Deputy Chief Minister, Modi laughed and said the BJP’s Central leadership would decide the issue. The JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MlAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.
Sources said Nitish and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were expected to call on Bihar’s acting Governor Keshrinath Tripathi in the night itself, but the meeting had to be put on hold till Thursday since the Governor fell ill and was taken to hospital for check up.
Now, the two leaders are expected to call on him on Thursday. After Nitish submitted his resignation to acting Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, and came out to explain to the media the circumstances that forced him to quit, the BJP quickly sent a letter of support to the Raj Bhavan and its legislators trooped in 1, Anne Marg, the residence of the CM.
While Modi tweeted within minutes of resignation congratulating Nitish, the CM in turn tweeted, “Thank PM @narendramodi from the bottom of my heart for his response to my decision.”
The script seemed to have been written in advance carefully and Nitish made all moves in a calculated manner. This is what RJD supremo lalu too apprehended. like a wounded tiger, lalu said he will call the legislators of the Mahagath-bandhan to sit together and elect a new leader in place of Nitish who he said had already made a deal with the BJP.
By planning to call the meeting of the MlAs of RJD, JD(U) and Congress, lalu plans to break JD(U) by telling its legislators that Nitish violated the alliance dharma and mandate and rejoined the “communal” forces.
Hitting hard at Nitish, the RJD chief said, “My younger brother (Nitish) is accused under sections 302 and 307. If Tejashwi is accused so is Nitish. He was scared of Tejashwi.” In a tweet he said, “It is foeticide of grand alliance.”
Apprehending trouble from lalu, Nitish and the BJP accelerated their plan in a military precision. The BJP, which had earlier said a three-member-committee would seek the opinion of the party MlAs and then apprise the Central leadership, changed its plan and declared support to Nitish, sent the support letter to the Governor, and NDA legislators reached the CM house to elect Nitish as their leader.
Nitish’s decision to resign came after a defiant lalu announced that his son will not resign. After meeting the Governor for 10 minutes, Nitish addressed the media told the reporters he has gone buy his conscience as it was not possible to run the coalition the Government under present circumstances.
“I have submitted resignation. I ran this 20-month-old alliance and observed dharma of Mahagathbandhan. I tried my best to save this unity but such an atmosphere was created under which it was just impossible for me to continue further. I informed lalu and Congress leaders before going to Raj Bhavan.”
He said he did not ask Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to resign because he did not want any confrontation. “It was the voice of my conscience to resign after I failed in my constant efforts to find a way out. I spoke to Rahul Gandhi and there was no communication gap with lalu ji. This crisis had been brought. Under these circumstances I had no reply to offer to the people of Bihar for whom I had been working. I had no basis to run this Government and it was against my nature.”
Nitish said he always supported Opposition unity but had to suffer and faced a lot of criticism from the allies. “I don’t want to blame anybody so took this initiative to resign. I tried my best to find a way out and ran this Government for 20 months which is one third of the total tenure and no finger of accusation was ever raised on governance.”
Asked if he could ally with the NDA, he said, “Aage kya hoga, kab hoga, kaisa hoga aage par chhor dijiye (When, how and what will happen next leave it on the future. But if there is any development in the interest of Bihar I will definitely consider it. let us see what happens but the current crisis has come to a logical end.”
On Tejashwi’s refusal to resign, Nitish said he talked to lalu ji and also met Tejashwi. “I told them that they should explain about the charges on him. Its fine to counter that he was implicated out of political vendetta but the impression among the people needed an explanation. But it was not done and atmosphere became so uneasy that it became impossible for me to remain in saddle. Had he explained I would have got some basis to face public. But it became clear that he did not want to say anything and I had no reply to offer.”
“Had he (Tejashwi) resigned on his own he would have gone to big heights. One has to take care of someone’s progress. But everybody has his own way and I have my own. I always quote Gandhi that greed has no limits and say that kafan (shreds) have no pockets,” he said in an indirect swipe on lalu.
Earlier in Delhi, the BJP said it was not in favour of mid-term polls in Bihar. After the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board’s with Modi in attendance. Senior party leader JP Nadda said BJP was of a view that the battle against corruption should continue in Bihar and announced that a three-member State committee will go into details of fresh moves to be made by the party.
BJP president Amit Shah spoke to Sushil and sought him to give feedback on possible steps which may be taken in the light of the breaking of the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in Bihar.
In an indication that the BJP was ready to be friends again with Nitish, Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad said the break-up of the alliance in Bihar was inevitable as it was an alliance of compulsion and convenience. He said while Nitish placed premium on good governance and integrity, it was not the case with the RJD leader lalu.