Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM; dumps Mahagathbandhan, INDIA bloc; stakes claim to form govt with BJP's support

Aditi Tandon 

New Delhi, January 28

JD (U) president Nitish Kumar on Sunday met the Bihar Governor and tendered his resignation as the state Chief Minister bringing down the ruling Mahagathbandhan Government which has the RJD, Congress and Left Front as partners, and staked claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.

Days of intense speculation around Kumar’s next moves finally ended today, after he chaired a meeting of JD (U) MLAs at his residence and told them that he was returning to the BJP-led NDA.

After that, Kumar left for Governor Rajendra Arlekar’s residence to hand over his resignation.

BJP MLAs now have extended support to Kumar who will stay Chief Minister.

All NDA allies in Bihar, including HAM and LJP, are on board about Kumar’s return.

Sources said Kumar will take oath as Chief Minister for the ninth time at 4 PM with top BJP leaders, including party chief JP Nadda, likely to attend.

BJP’s Sushil Modi and Renu Devi are expected to return as Deputy CMs with 18 BJP MLAs likely to be part of the state Cabinet.

The JD (U) will contest 2024 Lok Sabha polls with the NDA.

Together, all NDA partners, including Kumar’s JD (U), had won 31 out of 40 segments in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish contested the 2020 state polls with the BJP and won. He quit the NDA in August 2022 over apprehensions that the BJP was attempting to split his party.

The RJD and the Congress then powered him to CM-ship.

Again today, Kumar resigned days after he replaced Lallan Singh as JD (U) chief. Kumar had got a whiff of Lallan working with RJD chief Lalu Yadav to install Deputy CM Tejashwi as CM.

After returning from the Governor’s house, Kumar said, “I have resigned as Chief Minister and recommended dissolution of the Mahagathbandhan Government. I had kept silent for days. The situation had come to a passé. We were working in the alliance and others were not. The situation was not going good in the Mahagathbandhan. So, I consulted all my party people and listened to them. So, today I have resigned. Now, wait for other things to unfold. Previous partners will come together and decide the next course of action,” Kumar said.

The Governor has asked Nitish to continue as caretaker CM.

Kumar said he had formed a new alliance which did not work out well.

“For one-and-a-half years, we worked in the alliance, but everyone said it was not going well,” said Kumar.