Bihar Political Crisis: Nitish Kumar to take oath as CM today, Tejashwi Yadav as his Deputy; 10 latest developments

Name: Bihar Political Crisis: Nitish Kumar to take oath as CM today, Tejashwi Yadav as his Deputy; 10 latest developments
Uploaded: 2022-08-10T09:32:28+05:30
Duration: 6 min 47 s
Description: The swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar is scheduled at 2 pm today at the Rajendra Mandapam inside Raj Bhavan. Apart from Nitish, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will also take the oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

The swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar is scheduled at 2 pm today at the Rajendra Mandapam inside Raj Bhavan. Apart from Nitish, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will also take the oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

Mirror Now Digital

Updated Aug 10, 2022, 10:16 IST

Patna: JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation as the coalition Bihar Chief Minister on Tuesday and officially ended his alliance with the BJP. Later in the day, he staked claim before Governor Phagu Chouhan to form the next government with the support of 164 MLAs of seven parties.

Sources said that six ministers will also take oath on Wednesday. However, there is a possibility that only Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav will be sworn-in and the cabinet expansion will take place later on, reported IANS.

Bihar political crisis: Here are the 10 latest developments

NDA's ally and Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar on Tuesday ended his ties with BJP once again to ally with his political opponent Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), paving the way for a 'Mahagathbandhan 2.0' ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Kumar has been elected leader of 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance), comprising 7 political parties- RJD, Congress, JD(U), and Left parties, including CPI, CPIML, and others and over 164 MLAs.
Soon after resigning as the Bihar CM, Nitish returned to the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) and staked claim to form a new government. The effective strength of the Bihar State Assembly is 242 and the magic figure is 122. Speaking to the media persons yesterday, Nitish said he has submitted a list of 164 MLAs to the governor who are in his support and the Mahagathbandhan.
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.
Speaking to the media after submitting his resignation to Bihar Governor, Nitish Kumar said that all MPs and MLAs are at a consensus that we should leave the NDA. He said that he decided to split from the BJP based on the feedback he received at an interaction with his party's legislators yesterday morning. “My party leaders were saying since long that enough is enough and we should come out of the BJP alliance and when talks were done with the RJD, we took the decision”, Kumar said on Tuesday.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday said the BJP was left with no allies in the Hindi heartland after JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar severed ties with the saffron party in Bihar. “BJP crushes its allies. But now BJP is left with no allies in Hindi heartland. Together with Nitish Kumar Ji, we will work in the interest of Bihar, nation, poor people, and suppressed people,” Yadav said.
Terming Nitish Kumar’s action a betrayal, BJP Bihar chief Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal said that CM Nitish Kumar said during the 2020 assembly elections PM Modi, Amit Shah, and the rest of the BJP central leadership had projected Nitish as the NDA’s CM candidate and the party abided it by making him the CM. He has violated that mandate and the people of the state “will not tolerate it”, Jaiswal added.
Nitish Kumar called Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to express his gratitude for supporting the Mahagathbandhan and forming the government in Bihar, said Congress sources. Meanwhile, according to sources, Congress is likely to get four ministerial berths in the new government in Bihar. Besides the four ministerial berths, the Congress has also sought the post of Speaker of the state assembly, but Nitish Kumar is not keen on giving that, sources added.
Sources said that Nitish Kumar will keep the Home portfolio with himself, and the post of Assembly Speaker will go to the RJD. Kumar is likely to distribute the portfolios in a ratio of 1:4 or one minister for four MLAs. However, there is a possibility that as there are 7 alliance partners in the Mahagathbandhan, the rate may jump to 1:5.
For JD-U, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Ashok Chaudhary, Shrawan Kumar, Jama Khan, and Sumit Singh are the front runners for occupying ministerial berths again. On the other hand, Bhai Virendra, Tej Pratap Yadav, Rahul Tiwari, etc from the RJD are also in the race.
Earlier in 2013, when BJP announced Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate, Kumar unhappy over the decision had allied with the RJD and the Congress to contest the Assembly elections in 2015 and formed the mahagathbandhan government in the State. But two years later in 2017, Kumar joined hands with the BJP once again citing corruption charges against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav who was his deputy in the Cabinet at the time.

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