One Ascends, Another Descends: Nitish Kumar Resigns

Managing to clinch barely two seats in the Lok Sabha elections, JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today resigned from his post taking moral responsibility of his party’s defeat.

He tendered his resignation to the Bihar governor along with the resignation of his ministers.

However, the assembly has not been dissolved and the option of forming another government or instating another chief minister by the JD(U) is still open.

The resignation of Kumar has come at a crucial time when his party was marred by the internal fights and several rebellions. According to the sources, almost 40 JD(U) members were ready to join BJP under the leadership of Narendra Singh. In fact, a couple of days ago, former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had also said that over 50 JD (U) MLAs were in touch with the BJP and had predicted the state government would fall due to its internal conflicts.

The fissures in the party had started sometime last year as an aftermath of Kumar’s break-up with BJP in the state. The parting of Nitish from the NDA fold was essentially seen as a result of the elevation of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as the PM nominee of the BJP.

Everyone, including his party members had dubbed it as a mistake. Also, ever since it severed its ties with the BJP, Kumar has been on a shaky wicket in the state Assembly. The election results consolidated their belief in the fact that it was a mistake made by the Bihar chief minister for which they paid heavily.

Although the wipe out in the Lok Sabha elections do not necessarily mean that people do not want Kumar government in the state but JD(U) also lost four of the assembly seats out of five that went to bypoll at the same time as elections.

The ruling party has only 116 MLAs in a House of 243 and needs 122 to have a simple majority. Its government has been surviving on the outside support extended by the Congress and independent legislators. The BJP has 91 MLAs in the House, whose term expires in November 2015.

The JD-U’s entire election campaign was based on his high-pitched anti-Modi stand. The drubbing the party got in the LS polls also put a question mark on the continuance of Kumar’s eight-and-a half-year old government.

Hence, the chief minister took a high moral ground because he had “assumed the leadership” of the battle that was fought during the elections in the state where BJP emerged victorious.

LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan, who was not even able to open its account in the last assembly elections, gained six seats in Lok Sabha elections and they attribute it to their association with BJP and new PM Narendra Modi. Paswan even claims that Kumar will lose assembly election because of the infight in JD(U) and his arrogance.

First Assam CM Tarun Gogoi took the responsibility and announced he will resigned, now Nitish. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi too have offered their resignation. It will now be intersting to see who adds up to this list.

Maybe the Abdullahs?