Bihar Political Crisis: RJD-JD(U) to form next govt; Nitish likely to be retained as CM

JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar and RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav, (ANI Photo/ANI Pics Service)


After quitting as Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar went to Tejashwi Yadav’s residence in Patna where a broad consensus on the government formation has been built.

If sources are to be believed, Nitish Kumar could be retained as the chief minister, while Tejaswi Yadav the Deputy Chief Minister and Speaker from the RJD.

The sources also said that Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha has also extended unconditional support to Nitish Kumar & Mahagathbandhan.

According to JD (U) sources, Nitish Kumar has been elected leader of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ as prelude to staking claim to form new govt in Bihar.

Meanwhile, after tendering his resignation, Kumar said, “All MPs and MLAs reached a consensus that we should leave the NDA. Soon after, I resigned as Bihar CM.”

 

“All the meetings with the MPs, MLAs and MLCs of both the houses were held today. Everyone’s wish was that we should leave NDA. So as everyone wished, we accepted the same and submitted the resignation from the post of the Chief Minister in the NDA government,” he added.

According to party insiders, the first decision after government formation will be the announcement of jobs.

Since, there are no differences on the power sharing arrangements, the Congress is likely to get a ministerial berth after a formula was evolved during the discussions while the Left parties may extend their support from the outside.

As per RJD sources, “Let us forget what happened in 2017 and begin a new chapter, said JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar to RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.”

Earlier, in the day, the Congress and Left parties handed over the lists of their legislators to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Mandan Mohan Jha, the state president of Congress said: “We will support Nitish Kumar if he leaves the BJP and forms a new government with the help of Mahagathbandhan. We have also given the list of all 19 MLAs of our party to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.”

The Bihar BJP Chief, Sanjay Jaswal said, “We fought the 2020 polls together under NDA, the mandate was for JD-U and BJP, we won more seats despite that, Nitish Kumar was made the CM. Whatever happened today is a betrayal of Bihar’s people & the BJP.”