Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned yesterday, taking moral responsibility for the rout of his Janata Dal-United in the state in the general elections, even as party legislators reiterated their support and asserted they would persuade him to continue.
Governor D Y Patil late yesterday accepted the resignation.
After Nitish Kumar made the announcement, most of JD-U legislators announced that they would persuade him to change his mind for sake of the state’s development while hundreds of party leaders and workers flocked to the party office to express their solidarity. Incidentally the same party office was deserted on Friday after the results came out.
“I led the party’s campaign. I take moral responsibility for the election result,” a visibly despondent Nitish Kumar said at press conference after submitting his resignation.
The JD-U won only two of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats — as against 20 seats in 2009, when it was in alliance with the BJP, with which it parted ways last year after a 17-year-long alliance.
Nitish Kumar made it clear that he has not recommended the dissolution of the assembly, while a meeting of the legislature party has been scheduled for today.
“We did not get the expected support...(and) there is no doubt that the mandate is for the BJP,” said Nitish Kumar, who has been in the saddle since Nov 24, 2005, and won a second term in the 2010 assembly elections.
He added that he has not seen this kind of polarisation in Indian politics.
Bihar minister Vijay Choudhary said that everything will be decided in the meeting today.
“All of us are with Nitish Kumar. It is a rumour that some JD-U legislators are unhappy and likely to desert,” he said.
JD-U legislator Gajanand Shahi alias Munna Shahi said that there was no chance of any split in the party.
Another JD-U legislator Izhar Ahmad said: “We will not accept his resignation in the JD-U legislature party meeting on Sunday.”
Another legislator, Anant Kumar Singh said Nitish Kumar is a popular leader and if there is a requirement, the party will go to people for a fresh mandate. “At present we are trying to convince Nitish Kumar not to resign,”
he said.
Nitish Kumar’s arch rival, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad told media persons that his party will keep watch on developments. “I know that the Nitish Kumar government has numbers with it as he is having simple majority,” said Lalu Prasad, whose party was also decimated in the polls.
The BJP however described the resignation as a political stunt.
In the 243-member assembly, the JD-U has 118 legislators while the BJP has got 91.
People expressed shock over the development.
IANS
