Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday submitted his resignation to the Governor for formation of a new government. Earlier, at his government’s last Cabinet meeting, Mr. Kumar proposed to dissolve it, saying that on November 15 afternoon, NDA legislators would meet to elect leader of the alliance.
“A joint meeting of the all four National Democratic Alliance [NDA] partners in Bihar will be held at 12:30 p.m. on November 15 and the legislators would elect leader of the legislature party to finalise details pertaining to the next government formation”, Mr. Kumar told media persons after a meeting with leaders of the NDA constituents. “All decisions regarding government formation will be discussed in that meeting and you all [media persons] will be informed thereafter”, Mr. Kumar added.
Senior State BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and Mukesh Sahni president of the Vikasheel Insaan Party too were present in the meeting held at Chief Minister’s’s official bungalow 1, Anne Marg on Friday.
Later in the day, Mr. Kumar attended the last Cabinet meeting of his government through videoconference and proposed to dissolve the Cabinet. In the evening, he went to meet Governor Fagu Chauhan and submitted his resignation for the formation of new government. It is said that Mr. Kumar may take oath as chief minister for the fourth consecutive term on November 16.
In the recent Assembly elections for total 243 seats, Mr. Kumar’s party, the JD(U), had got only 43 seats — worst performance ever since the party came to power in 2005, while the BJP had got 74 seats. The other two NDA partners, the HAM(S) and the VIP, won four seats each. Among the Opposition alliance partners, the RJD got 75 seats, while the Congress 19 and the Left parties bagged 16 seats.
Independent MLA from Chakai in Jamui district Sumit Kumar Singh declared his support to the NDA. Mr. Singh is the son of former Minister Narendra Singh.