Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar chief minister: BJP backs JD(U) chief, hopes slim for Lalu's RJD

Hours after the fragile bonding that the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) snapped on Wednesday after Nitish Kumar decided to call it quits, BJP announced its support to the JD(U) paving the way for the next government to take over. The JD(U) and BJP had ruled the state for nine years earlier. [caption id=“attachment_3859725” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. PTI[/caption] In the last election in 2015 for the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, RJD won 80 seats, JD(U) 71 while the Congress won 27 seats. With a total strength of 178, the grand alliance, or the Mahagathbandhan comfortably formed the government with Nitish Kumar as the chief minister. However, after JD(U) pulled out both the RJD and the Congress combined don’t have the requisite numbers to continue in the government as they have only 107 seats in their kitty. The BJP suddenly found itself in the role of the kingmaker as it has 53 seats in the Assembly. Its alliance partner Lok Jan Shakti has two seats. Provided all the three comes along then the number reaches 126 barely above the majority mark. The RLSP, HAM and CPI(ML) have 2, 1, 1 seats respectively. Although the NDA has 58 members in the Bihar House, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) is not very keen on supporting Nitish. Kumar, given his relatively clean image, was under intense pressure to remove Tejaswi Yadav after his dubious dealings came to the fore following raids to his premises by various investigating agencies. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly praising Kumar for the step he took, there were enough indications already that the BJP would like to see itself back in power in Bihar.

भ्रष्टाचार के ख़िलाफ़ लड़ाई में जुड़ने के लिए नीतीश कुमार जी को बहुत-बहुत बधाई।
सवा सौ करोड़ नागरिक ईमानदारी का स्वागत और समर्थन कर रहे हैं

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

देश के, विशेष रूप से बिहार के उज्जवल भविष्य के लिए राजनीतिक मतभेदों से ऊपर उठकर भ्रष्टाचार के ख़िलाफ़ एक होकर लड़ना,आज देश और समय की माँग है

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Interestingly, the RJD chief is still hoping to cling to power as it is learnt, the RJD may claim to form the government being the largest single party.