Patna: The political upheavel triggered by the resignation of Nitish Kumar from the post of Bihar Chief Minister continued on Sunday with thousands of Janata Dal United workers protesting against his decision and demanding that he continue in his post.
At the meeting of JDU MLAs there were vociferous demands for Kumar not to quit with many legislators threatening dharna but the Bihar CM placated them by seeking time till Monday morning to reconsider his decision.
The JDU leader had resigned on Saturday taking responsibility for the party's rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Amidst speculation that a section of JDU was unhappy with Nitish's leadership, party MLAs unanimously chose Nitish as their leader and insisted that he withdraw his resignation.
"Ever since Nitish tendered his resignation, party MLAs were protesting against the decision and urged him to withdraw his decision to quit. The party will also held another JDU Legislative Party meeting on Monday and final decision will be taken then," said party spokesman Sanjay Singh.
"When MLAs persisted asking Nitish to continue as the Chief Minister and even threatened to sit on dharna at his residence, he sought time till Monday to convey his decision," he added.
In the JDU Legislative Party meeting, Nitish in his speech said his continuing as the Chief Minister would be a loss for the party and insisted on not withdrawing his resignation.
Kumar said he would devote more time to the party remaining out of power. He also said that the rival BJP was making mockery of his resignation by describing it as "nautanki" (drama). But, party legilators refused to buy his argument.
However, JDU chief Sharad Yadav is reported to be not in favour of continuation of Nitish after severe the drubbing in Lok Sabha polls.
But raising the slogan of 'One leader One mission', the legislators highlighted that since they got peoples' mandate in 2010 Assembly poll in the name of Kumar he should continue during the remaining 18 months of the present Assembly.
> Of the total 117 party MLAs, four women legislators, who have been suspended for anti-party activities in the Parliamentary poll, were not invited at the nearly one-and-a- half hour long meeting.
Earlier during the day, Sharad Yadav even faced stormy protest from Kumar's supporters for his stand outside the chief minister's house. Yadav statement that Kumar would not be chosen as legislative party leader saw massive protests with JDU workers shouting slogans against him.
Tempers ran high outside the venue of the meeting with supporters of Nitish manhandling senior minister Ramai Ram, who has been speaking against the Chief Minister.
Ram was pushed by angry supporters of Kumar. He was later cordoned off by security personnel who took him to the state guest house under their protection.
JDU's erstwhile ally, BJP though categorically demanded the dissolution of Bihar Assembly. A delegation of BJP MLAs met Bihar Governor DY Patil on Sunday and demanded to dissolve the state Assembly.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi met the Bihar Governor and submitted a memorandum saying that there is a political instability in the state and that Nitish Kumar does not enjoy majority.
"JDU MLAs should be paraded to the Raj Bhawan to prove their majority in the Bihar Assembly," he said.
Reacting to the rapid political developments in Bihar, BJP president Rajnath Singh said, "Our Bihar unit is keeping a close watch on the developments in the state."
The Ministry of Home Affairs though has advised the Bihar Governor not to dissolve the Assembly immediately and to explore the possibility of a government formation. The MHA has also sought a report from the Governor on the political development in the state.
Interestingly, Nitish Kumar's resignation as the Bihar Chief Minister set the stage for an overhaul of alliances in the state Assembly.
JDU is in talks with both the Congress and arch rival Rashtriya Janata Dal, said sources.
While the Congress reciprocated positively to JDU's hints, the RJD denied the reports. "We had already extended support to JDU when it split from NDA. We haven't taken that back," Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed said.
However, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said, "This is there internal matter. Sharad has not spoken to me. We are keeping watch on the situation. We will discuss all this in the party meeting tomorrow."
In the Bihar Assembly, Nitish's JDU has 117 MLAs, BJP has 90, RJD 24 and LJP just 3 seats. BJP is well short of the halfway mark of 122.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
Comments
0 comment