Nitish Kumar refuses to stay as Bihar chief minister; JDU to decide on new leader today

PATNA: The JD(U) legislature party on Sunday decided to take the final call on choosing a new leader tomorrow in the wake of the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

JD(U) MLAs unanimously chose Nitish Kumar as their leader and insisted that he withdraw his resignation, but an emotional Kumar refused.

When MLAs persisted asking him to continue as CM and even threatened to sit on dharna at his residence, Kumar sought time till Monday to convey his decision, party spokesman Sanjay Singh told reporters.

Accordingly, JD(U) legislature party meeting has been called again on Monday, Singh said.

Nitish Kumar in his speech at the meeting said his continuing as chief minister would be a loss for the party and insisted on not withdrawing his resignation.

Kumar said he would devote more time to the party remaining out of power. He also said that rival BJP was making mockery of his resignation by describing it as "nautanki" (drama). But, party legilators refused to buy his argument.