Nitish back as Bihar CM, Sushil Modi is Deputy CM

Less than 24 hours after he submitted his resignation as the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar was back in the chair on Thursday morning  after he was administered the oath by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, heralding his sixth term in power.

BJP leader Sushil Modi was sworn in as the deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, a post he had held before, from 2005 to 2013. The Raj Bhavan here echoed with chants of “Nitish Kumar Zindabad” as Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath to Nitish Kumar.

Earlier, Nitish ended his less than two-year old grand alliance with the RJD and Congress on Wednesday evening, citing a “call of conscience” over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav. As soon as he quit, the BJP extended his support to the JDU.

The other new ministers will be sworn in after Nitish Kumar proves majority on Friday.

Nitish decided to tender his resignation after Lalu called a meeting of his party leaders on Wednesday afternoon and made it clear that his son would not quit, and also reminded Nitish that the RJD had made him the CM.

Nitish, after consulting his party leaders and MLAs, went to the Governor house and tendered his resignation. “In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government,” Kumar said outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday evening.

“It had become difficult for me to work,” Kumar opined, adding, “In taking this decision, I have listened to my conscience.” 

Meanwhile, angry at not being invited to form the government, the RJD on Thursday threatened it will not allow the monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly to be run unless new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi resign. The monsoon session of the state Assembly begins on Friday. Demanding that Nitish Kumar and Modi resign, senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said: “RJD is the largest party in the state Assembly. We have majority but were not invited by the Governor to form government. The RJD will not allow the Assembly to function,” Singh said.

The Congress on Thursday hit out at JD-U chief Nitish Kumar for dumping the Grand Alliance and aligning with the BJP to form government in Bihar and termed it as a “black day” for democracy and disregard of people’s mandate.

“A story of ‘rank opportunism and treachery with people’s mandate’ was written in Bihar today (Thursday) by BJP and Nitish Kumar. Truth is that ‘hunger for power has overpowered’ everything else,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep singh Surjewala.