Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister on Sunday, 28 January, ending the 'Mahagathbandhan' which came to power along with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, and Left parties two years ago.
The JD(U) had contested the most recent Bihar assembly elections in 2020 in alliance with the BJP. After the elections, the RJD emerged as the largest party, with 75 seats. The BJP had won 74 seats while JD(U) had bagged 43 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. Then, in 2022, Kumar had snapped ties with the BJP and formed the government as a 'Mahagatbandhan’, which he has now ended and returned to join hands with the BJP.
Kumar took oath as CM again on Sunday itself, but this time as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Who Stands Where
RJD is still the single largest party in the 243-member strong assembly in Bihar, with 79 MLAs. However, it is still 43 short of the halfway mark of 122. The Congress has 19 MLAs and the three Left parties have a combined of 16 MLAs in the assembly.
How numbers stack up in the Bihar assembly.
(Vibhushita Singh/ The Quint)
In the NDA camp, the BJP has 78 MLAs, the JDU has 45 and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has 4 legislators. If these three parties stick together, they will have a total of 127 MLAs, which is 5 more than the halfway mark, thus clearing their way to form the government.
With the JDU now out of the Mahagatbandhan, the coalition has just 114 MLAs - eight short of the halfway mark.
'Situation Here Was Not Good': Kumar, After Resigning
Addressing the media after submitting his resignation to the Governor, Kumar said: "I have resigned as the CM and given a letter to the governor to dissolve government. There was suggestions from all leaders to resign. I had issues, that's why I resigned. I had left the previous alliance and made a new one but I saw that the situation here was not good. So the suggestion (to step down) was coming from all sides."
Kumar, along with the NDA, staked claim to form the government in Bihar. “Bihar Governor has accepted the claim of NDA to form the govt & has invited to take oath today, at 5 pm,” Vinod Tawde, the BJP general secretary posted on X.
Hours after Kumar stepped down from the CM post, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the party knew about the move but did not say anything to keep the INDIA alliance intact.
"Earlier him (Nitish Kumar) and us were fighting together. When I talked to Lalu (Prasad Yadav) Ji and Tejashwi (Yadav), they also said that Nitish is going. If he wanted to stay, he would have stayed but he wanted to go. And we already knew this. But, to keep the INDIA Alliance intact, we did not say anything," Kharge said. The leader said that there are many people like "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" in the country.
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