Nitish Kumar Resigns as Bihar CM Amid Political Crisis, Submits Letter of Support to Guv

Bihar Political Crisis Latest Update: Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor Phagu Chauhan and after leaving the Raj Bhawan, Kumar said he has submitted resignation.

Bihar Political Crisis Latest Update: JDU leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday resigned as the chief minister of Bihar, ending the coalition with the NDA. He submitted his resignation to Governor Phagu Chauhan and after leaving the Raj Bhawan, Kumar said, “I have submitted my resignation.”

After tendering his resignation, CM Nitish Kumar left for the residence of Rabri Devi in Patna. “All MPs and MLAs are at a consensus that we should leave the NDA,” Nitish Kumar said after submitting his resignation to Bihar Governor.

In a latest political development, Nitish Kumar has split with ally BJP for a second time in eight years and met Governor Phagu Chauhan earlier in the day.

A meeting of the RJD-led Grand Alliance, comprising the Left and the Congress, also took place at Rabri Devi’s house, across the street from the chief minister’s residence where all the MLAs are said to have signed a letter of support to Kumar.

Nitish Kumar is understood to have told party legislators and MPs, at a meeting he convened at his official residence, that he had been driven against the wall by the BJP which tried to weaken his JD(U), first by propping up Chirag Paswan’s rebellion and later through the party’s former national president RCP Singh.

RCP Singh was made a cabinet minister at the Centre without Kumar’s explicit agreement. And then, when his term as a Rajya Sabha member ended, the JD(U) refused to give him another term as an MP, thus ending his stint as cabinet minister as well.

Following this, rumours of a split in the JD(U) engineered by Singh’s supporters surfaced.

Relations between the BJP and the JD(U) have been worsening for quite some time in the wake of disagreements over a host of issues including caste census, population control and the Agnipath’ defence recruitment scheme.

In the state assembly, which has an effective strength of 242, requiring 121 MLAs for a majority, the RJD has the highest number of 79 MLAs followed by the BJP (77) and the JD(U) with 44.

The JD(U) also enjoys the support of four MLAs of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and an Independent. The Congress has 19 MLAs while the CPIML(L) has 12 and CPI and CPI(M) have two each. Besides, one MLA belongs to Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM.