Headlines
Manjhi quits, Nitish to be next Bihar CM
Patna, Feb 20
JD-U leader Nitish Kumar will
take oath as the new chief minister of Bihar Feb 22 after Jitan Ram
Manjhi resigned Friday, less than an hour before a confidence vote in
the state assembly.
Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi Friday invited Nitish Kumar to form the next government, a party spokesperson said.
"Governor
Tripathi has invited Nitish Kumar to form the next government after he
met him at Raj Bhavan and formally staked claim," Janata Dal-United
spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.
Manjhi claimed he as well as some legislators supporting him had received threats to their lives.
Nitish Kumar Friday publicly apologised to the people for his "mistake" for having resigned as chief minister last year.
"I
admit that I made a mistake by resigning as chief minister. I publicly
apologise for it to the people of Bihar. Please forgive me, as I will
not repeat my mistake," Nitish Kumar said at a press conference here.
Nitish
Kumar saying sorry was akin to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal's
apology for resigning as the Delhi chief minister after 49 days in
power last year. The AAP made a stunning comeback in the national
capital, winning 67 of the 70 assembly seats.
Nitish Kumar
apologised twice during his half-an-hour address to the media here. He
made it clear that he will not take any such emotional decision in the
future.
Manjhi Friday resigned just ahead of a confidence motion in the assembly.
"I
have submitted my resignation letter to the governor. I should have
quit before," said Manjhi soon after he met Tripathi here Friday.
Nitish
Kumar described Manjhi's sudden decision to quit as chief minister just
ahead of the floor test as a "unique situation". "There was
high-voltage drama."
"This is perhaps happening for the first
time. The governor was to address the joint session. Half an hour before
that, the chief minister resigned," Nitish Kumar told reporters.
Countering Manjhi's accusation, Nitish Kumar said it was "hilarious".
"I have never interfered in any work," he said.
Nitish
Kumar said he will work in the same manner in which he had worked
during his last eight and a half years as chief minister.
"For me, governance and only governance will be the priority," he said.
Nitish Kumar said the Bharatiya Janata Party's game plan has failed.
"The BJP tried to split the JD-U but failed and Manjhi fled the field," he said.
The
former chief minister said the BJP wrote the script for the current
political situation in his state. "The BJP supported Manjhi."
"But Manjhi resigned after he failed to get adequate numbers to prove his majority in the assembly," he said.
On
Feb 8, the JD-U submitted letters of support to the governor staking
claim to form the government. The move came a day after Nitish Kumar was
re-elected the legislature party leader.
Manjhi was picked by
the former chief minister as his replacement when he quit last year
after the JD-U's rout in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the 243-member
assembly, the JD-U has 115 legislators - most of whom are with Nitish
Kumar. The party has the support of 24 Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
legislators, five Congress legislators, two independents and a Communist
Party of India legislator.
The BJP has 88 legislators and is supported by three Independents.
After
he resigned, Manjhi said he had requested Tripathi to hold a secret
ballot, saying, "in that case, I would have had the support of 40-50
JD-U legislators".
"But I realised that secret ballot may not
happen, and a lot of legislators would have lost their membership if it
would have been known that they had voted for me, that's why I decided
to quit," he said.
Manjhi maintained that "quite a few MLAs had met him in the night and pledged support to him".
He accused the JD-U of "horse-trading", an euphemism for driving a hard bargain to ensure adequate numbers in a floor test.
The BJP also accused Nitish Kumar of horse-trading and humiliating a Mahadalit chief minister.