Nitish Kumar tenders resignation to Bihar governor ahead of NDA meet on November 15

JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation from the post of the chief minister after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan.

Bihar Chief MinisterJD(U) chief Nitish Kumar on Friday tendered his resignation from the post after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan. In a letter to the governor, he asked to dissolve the 16th Bihar assembly. 

Governor Chauhan accepted the resignation and asked him to hold office till the formation of a new government. Until the formation of the new government, Nitish Kumar will be the acting chief minister of Bihar. Nitish Kumar will be selected as the new leader in the NDA meeting on November 15.

A joint meeting of the NDA legislature party will be held in Patna on November 15 (Sunday) where Nitish Kumar will be elected as its leader, it was decided on Friday. The decision was taken at an "informal" meeting of leaders of the four NDA constituents in Bihar--the JD(U), BJP, HAM and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) at the residence of Chief Minister Kumar.

"The meeting will start at 12:30 pm on Sunday, November 15 where all further decisions will be taken," chief minister-elect Kumar, who also heads the JD(U) told reporters later. He also said the current state cabinet will hold its last meeting in the evening where a decision on the dissolution of the assembly, the tenure of which expires on November 29, will be taken.

"These formalities have to be completed before the formation of a new government. The cabinet's recommendations will be forwarded to the governor whose approval will be followed by other steps leading to the formation of a new government," Kumar added.

Despite the BJP emerging as the largest party in the ruling alliance with 74 seats, 31 more than the JD(U), the top leadership of the saffron party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has emphatically endorsed Kumar as the next chief minister. He was declared the ruling coalition's chief ministerial candidate much before the election process had started.

Though Kumar did not divulge more on what transpired during the meeting at his residence, informed sources said the issues discussed included the representation of each constituent in the cabinet and election of the new assembly speaker. Speculation is rife that the BJP might push for an EBC or a Dalit as a Deputy CM though it is not clear whether the insistence will be on replacing veteran leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who has been holding the post for the most part since 2005 or replicating the experiment in adjoining Uttar Pradesh where two leaders occupy the post.