Nitish Kumar today resigned as the Chief Minister of the Mahagathbandhan alliance and got the Bihar government dissolved via Governor Rajendra Arlekar. Talking to the media after tendering his resignation, Kumar said that he quit the INDIA bloc as all was not well within the alliance. In his first reaction to the political turmoil, Kumar said the state of affairs in the 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) formed one and a half years ago was 'not good'.


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"I resigned as chief minister and requested the Governor to dissolve the government. The situation came to this pass as the state of affairs within the ruling alliance in Bihar wasn't good. I sought the advice and opinions of everyone before coming to this decision. I took all opinions and suggestions to heart. The government is being dissolved today," Nitish told reporters on Sunday.


He said that the alliance that was formed one and a half years ago, was sailing through choppy waters. "Though we came together on the basis of a common minimum programme and promises to the people, we failed to live up to expectations and discharge our salient duties. Eventually, we fell out and even stopped being on speaking terms. I was left with no option but to sever all ties with the alliance," he said.


Meanwhile, the Congress compared Kumar with a chameleon for his frequent switchovers. "Nitish Kumar, who frequently changes political partners, is giving tough competition to the chameleons in changing colours. The people of Bihar will not forgive the experts of this betrayal and those who made them dance to their tune. It is quite clear that the Prime Minister and the BJP are scared of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and this political drama has been created to divert attention from it," said Jairam Ramesh.



Earlier today, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that he talked with Lalu Yadav on the issue. "Earlier he and us were fighting together. When I talked to Lalu Ji and Tejashwi, they also said that Nitish is going. If he wanted to stay, he would have stayed but he wants to go. That's why we already knew this, but to keep the India Alliance intact, if we say something wrong, the wrong message will be sent. This information was already given to us by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav. Today that came true. There are many people in the country like 'Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram'," Kharge said.