New Delhi: On a day of fast-moving political developments, Bihar's mercurial leader Nitish Kumar, soon after resigning as the chief minister, met Governor Phagu Chauhan once again and staked claim to form a new government. Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav accompanied him.
The JD(U) severed its alliance with BJP for the second time after their reunion in 2017 and joined hands with RJD-led Mahagathbandhan 2.0 (Grand Alliance) of seven parties for the second time. However, there is no change in the chief ministerial face and Kumar will remain the CM of Mahagathbandhan 2.0 while RJD's de-facto leader Tejashwi Yadav will be his deputy in the new coalition government.
As per the official communiqué from Raj Bhavan, the oath-taking ceremony of the CM and the deputy CM will take place on Wednesday at 2 pm.
As JDU's MPs and MLAs unanimously decided to quit the NDA alliance during its key meeting held on Tuesday, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to the Governor and within an hour he reached Raj Bhavan once again and staked the claim to form a new government with the support of RJD-led Grand Alliance of seven parties comprising mainly Congress, CPI, CPM and CPI-ML.
After submitting his resignation, Kumar visited the official residence of Rabri Devi and met RJD leaders, including Tejashwi Yadav and Tejpratap Yadav to discuss the future course of action. As per sources, Kumar asked the former Bihar CM to forget all that happened in 2017 and begin a new chapter.
Following this, Nitish Kumar was elected as the leader of the RJD-led 'Mahagathbandhan' and was accompanied by RJD's face Tejashwi Yadav when he submitted a list of 164 MLAs to the Governor.
After submitting his resignation, Kumar said: "I have resigned and I have informed all my MLAs. The decision to split from the BJP was based on the feedback he received this morning at an interaction with his party's legislators."
Kumar further said: "We have the support of seven parties and one Independent MLA. The letter of support has been signed by all."
As per sources, Kumar also spoke with Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and expressed his gratitude to them for supporting him after he broke ties with the BJP. The sources further said that the Congress will have "active participation" in the government. It is speculated that Congress leader Tariq Anwar may be inducted into the new Cabinet.
According to sources, JDU and RJD are likely to get 14 ministerial berths each while Congress may get three.
While praising Kumar's leadership, Tejashwi said that Nitish Kumar is the country's most experienced chief minister and "we won't let BJP implement its agenda in Bihar".
"JP Nadda had said that they would end regional parties. The BJP knows only to intimidate and buy people. The BJP's agenda shouldn't be implemented in Bihar. We all wanted that and we won't relent at any cost," Tejashwi said, adding that across the Hindi heartland, the BJP does not have any alliance partner. History tells us that the BJP destroys the parties with whom it forms an alliance as it was evident in Punjab and Maharashtra, he said.
Meanwhile, BJP's state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal has accused Nitish Kumar of betraying the mandate of people of Bihar. "We fought the 2020 polls together under the NDA, the mandate was for JD-U and BJP, we won more seats and despite that, Nitish Kumar was made the CM. Whatever happened today is a betrayal of Bihar's people & the BJP," Jaiswal said.
The JD(U) has become the third major ally after the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal to snap ties with the BJP after 2019. Within 18 months of the BJP's second consecutive Lok Sabha election victory, the party had lost two of its oldest allies — Shiv Sena and Akali Dal.