Nitish likely to resign as Bihar CM after last Cabinet meet on April 14

Patna: Bihar inched towards a political transition on Sunday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convening a meeting of his Cabinet on April 14, following which the JD(U) president is likely to relinquish the post to make way for a BJP-led government.

According to a notification issued by the Cabinet secretariat department, the meeting will take place at 11 am, after which the longest-serving CM of the state, who got elected to the Rajya Sabha last week, was expected to submit his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain.

Earlier, Kumar’s close aide and JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha had told reporters that the process of formation of a new government was likely to “roll out after April 13”.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which has been approaching the prospect of having its first- ever chief minister in the state with considerable restraint, got down to business and named Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a “central observer”, who would oversee the change of guard.

A statement issued by the BJP headquarters in Delhi said the parliamentary board has appointed Chouhan, a Union minister and a multiple-term former CM of Madhya Pradesh, as “central observer for electing the leader of legislature party in Bihar”.

Senior JD(U) leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, had said here earlier in the day “the new chief minister will be elected by the NDA, upon the recommendation of the BJP, which has a big role to play”.