Tejashwi meets Bihar guv, stakes claim to form govt
PATNA: Upping the ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the controversial government formation in Karnataka, Bihar’s principal opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), along with the Congress, met Bihar governor Satyapal Malik on Friday to stake claim to form the government.
Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who led the march to Raj Bhawan with the RJD, Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (liberation) legislators, contented that the RJD, being the single-largest party, should be invited to form the government. He cited the case of Karnataka, where governor Vajubhai Vala called the singlelargest party, the BJP, over a post-poll coalition of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) that claimed a majority.
Congress state president Kauqab Quadri along with senior Congress MLAs and MLCs, former health minister Tej Pratap and RJD’s senior MLA Bhai Virendra were present in the march. “There is one Constitution in India and one rule. What applies in Karnataka should also apply in Bihar. The governor should invite the RJD to form the government as it is the singlelargest party in Bihar,” said Yadav. He further claimed that the RJD , Congress and CPI-ML, who have 111 MLAs between them, would easily pass the floor test if invited to form the government and said a large number of Janata Dal (United) MLAs were also in touch with them.
The RJD, JD(U) and Congress had fought the 2015 Bihar election together and defeated the BJP. But JD(U) broke away last year and formed the government with the BJP. Currently, the JD(U) has 70 MLAs, the RJD 80, the BJP 53, the Congress 27 and others are 12. The Bihar assembly has 243 seats and the halfway mark is 122.
“We have told the governor that we have 111 MLAs to prove majority in the state assembly with ease. Several JD(U) MLAs are also in touch with us and ready to switch sides as they are unhappy with CM Nitish Kumar and denial of special status category to Bihar by the Centre,” Yadav said.
“In Bihar, the NDA government was formed through the back door by ignoring RJD’s status as the single-largest party. We sat on dharna till 2 in the night on July 26 to meet the governor but failed to get a call. All opposition parties should now unite against the saffron outfit and its dictatorial ways,” Yadav said.