Nitish Kumar, MLAs shift their base to Delhi

Patna: In order to demonstrate his strength Nitish Kumar Tuesday evening flew to New Delhi along with supporting MLAs. Before leaving Patna, he raised questions over the delay in inviting him to form the government. Sensing trouble, he said the MLAs will be paraded in front of President Pranab Mukherjee as soon as they get an appointment with him.

Party insiders said that the MLAs were ready to stay in Delhi till they get a call to form government in Bihar. They said that the party leaders, in an attempt to stop horse-trading, have made arrangements for MLAs to stay in Noida instead of New Delhi.

“Till now we have not received any invitation from the governor to form government despite the fact that the governor was informed about the status of my strength in the House. We have decided to approach the President now and I am going to New Delhi along with MLAs who are ready to parade in front of him,” Mr Nitish Kumar said.

Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi held a meeting of his Cabinet Tuesday afternoon but this was attended by only eight ministers, including himself. He distributed additional portfolios to them as they had been lying unassigned since 20 ministers of his Cabinet resigned.

On the other hand, a Nitish camp leader, Ramai Ram, before leaving for Delhi demanded the deputy chief ministership for himself. The party remained tight-lipped on the issue but insiders said Mr Ram, being a dalit leader, wanted a place of dignity in the party and the Cabinet of Nitish Kumar. Ramai Ram indicated that he, being the seniormost, deserved that position.

Nitish Kumar congratulated AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and said the BJP would face the same fate in Bihar. Slamming Mr Manjhi, he said, “Manjhi proved the party wrong by his attitude. He went against party line and started to dance to the tune of the BJP which wanted a division in the party. We were compelled to remove him as there was a long list of complaints against him.”

Amid this political drama rebel MLAs on Tuesday tried to bring a confidence motion against the Bihar Assembly Speaker, but this was rejected by the Assembly Secretariat, leading to a further ruckus on the premises of the Bihar Assembly. The rebel leaders were demanding the ouster of the Speaker, alleging his involvement in the 2005 murder of a former LJP MP, Rajesh Kumar, who was gunned down in Gaya.