The Janata Dal (United) and the RJD as well other parties of the proposed unified Janata Parivar are bracing for a massive showdown inside and outside Parliament if Nitish Kumar is denied opportunity to take over as Chief Minister and State Assembly was dissolved at the recommendation of Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
After the JD(U) legislature Party meeting elected Nitish Kumar as new leader on Saturday, the Assembly Speaker on Sunday notified that Nitish is now the leader of the party in the House. This has been intimated to Manjhi, who is New Delhi. JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav on Sunday wrote a letter to Manjhi asking him to resign since he no longer was leader of the ruling party.
With Manjhi refusing to budge, the JD(U) legislators besides the MlAs of the RJD, the Congress and the CPI were readying to parade before the Governor on Monday when Keshri Nath Tripathi arrives here from Kolkata in the morning.
The leaders — including Sharad Yadav, RJD supremo lalu Prasad and leaders of Congress and CPI — are likely to call on the Governor and stake claim for the formation of the Government headed by Nitish. “We are ready to parade 130 MlAs from Raj Bhawan to Rashtrapati Bhawan,” said JD(U) secretary general KC Tyagi. However, the Nitish camp is not sure that the Governor would invite him to prove his majority at any forum.
“If Governor does not invite Nitish and accepts any recommendation of Manjhi for the dissolution of the Assembly, we will resort to direct action. All the parties of the Janata Parivar will chart out a plan to stall the two Houses of the Parliament,” said a leader close to Nitish. He added, “It will turn out to be a national agitation against the BJP.”
The former CM is receiving calls from leaders of different parties extending their support. After his election as leader of the JD(U)lP on Saturday, Nitish has been called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and leaders of CPI.
Sources close to Nitish said he was ready to face any situation. “If he is invited, he will form the Government and prove the majority on the floor of the House. If he is not, the party will go in an agitation mode,” a leader close to Nitish revealed. The Nitish camp feels that the Governor will have to hasten the process since the Budget Session of the legislature has already been convened from February 20.
Meanwhile, Bima Bharti, who resigned from the Manjhi Cabinet on Saturday night filed an FIR with police on Sunday alleging that a Minister Vinay Bihari and a JD(U) MlA of Manjhi camp Sumit Singh threatened her of dire consequences if she did not support Manjhi. Another Nitish loyalist MlA Sunita Singh said Minister Narendra Singh has threatened her. “The BJP has started horse-trading,” alleged JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar.
Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi accused BJP president Amit Shah of playing a ‘nefarious’ game in Bihar to break the JD(U). “The BJP is scared of Nitish and does not want him to return as Chief Minister,” he said.
Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has few options before him. He could ask Manjhi to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly, and in the event he failed to so, the Raj Bhavan could accept the claim of Nitish and invite him to form the Government. Another option could be dissolution of the Assembly if such a recommendation comes from the Chief Minister. However, top legal luminaries like Soli Sorabjee and Shanti Bhushan have gone on record this will not be in accordance with the constitutional propriety because majority of the Cabinet was against dissolution of the House.
A State Cabinet meeting on Saturday authorised Manjhi to recommend dissolution of the Assembly at an “appropriate time of his choice. Only seven Ministers backed the proposal and nearly 17 rejected it.