Janata Dal-United (JDU) AND Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) struck a new chord when they formed a new alliance to form the government in Bihar. It was only on Wednesday Chief Minister Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation from the post of Chief Minister. He took oath as the new Chief Minister of Bihar on 27.7.2017 at 10 am. This is the sixth time Nitish Kumar is taking oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar. Members of the new alliance, JD(U) and Bihar unit of the BJP met at the residence of Nitish Kumar and talked about the future route of action for the newly created coalition.
Sushil Modi and Nityanand Rai were among the leaders who reached the residence of Kumar in Patna and they will be joined by BJP’s Anil Jain on Thursday with JP Nadda. Sushil Modi of BJP will be the new Deputy Chief Minister. BJP had earlier declared that if JD(U) splits from the alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal they will give full support to the JD(U). Nitish Kumar announced his resignation following the row over CBI charges on Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav who is the son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. After the resignation Nitish Kumar met the Bihar Governor Keshri Nath again on Wednesday evening to stake claim to form government. He is having the support of BJP and other smaller parties. The letter submitted to the governor claims support of 132 legislators. Meanwhile Tejashwi Yadav, who was earlier the deputy chief minister, also met the governor to try and stop the oath ceremony on Thursday morning. His claim was that, being the largest party in Bihar, they should be given the first chance to form the government. He was later in the night seen sitting in protest outside the Governor’s residence on Wednesday night.
The surprise move by Nitish Kumar was as a result of Lalu Yadav saying that Tejashwi would not resign as deputy chief minister despite being caught in a corruption scandal. The move, even though was a surprise, was expected because Nitish Kumar had earlier abandoned his allies and other parties to side the BJP in the election for President of India. He was also the only opposition leader to back the sudden ban of high-denomination notes in November. Nitish had earlier ended a 17 year alliance with the BJP in 2013 and in 2015 he joined up with Congress and Lalu Yadav to block Narendra Modi from winning Bihar for the BJP.
