Nitish back as CM, to face old allies in floor test today
Set to sail through with BJP support; Lalu threatens to move SC
Within 18 hours of resigning as Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar took oath on Thursday as the head of the government for the sixth time with the BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi as his deputy.
He will seek a trust vote on Friday after re-forging a partnership with the BJP, four years after he walked out of the NDA.
His surprise resignation sank the three-party “grand alliance” of his Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress that defeated the BJP in the 2015 state elections.
Kumar’s switch upset several leaders of the JD(U) as well, including parliamentarians and local unit heads.
According to sources, Sharad Yadav, who led the party before Kumar, is also said to be displeased with the chief minister’s “unilateral decisions”.
RJD chief Prasad accused Kumar of cheating the people of Bihar and said in Ranchi he could challenge in the Supreme Court the governor’s action of disallowing his party, the single largest with 80 legislators, to stake claim to form a new government.
Numbers seems to favour Kumar. The JD(U) has 71 MLAs, the BJP 53, other NDA partners five. Besides, two of the four independents have backed the NDA, making a bloc of 131, which is nine more than the majority mark in the 243-member assembly.
The RJD-led grouping has 107 members, including the Congress’s 27. Two independents and three CPI-ML members are unattached. Law experts believe a legal fight against Kumar may fall flat.