Nitish Kumar back to NDA fold, to take oath as Bihar CM tomorrow

New Delhi [India], July 26 (ANI): The rigmarole of Bihar politics ceases to come to a stop as Nitish Kumar, who just hours back stepped down as the Chief Minister, is all set to take oath as the CM tomorrow at 5 p.m. With this, Nitish has come back to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold. This will be the sixth time, when Nitish will take the oath as the Bihar Chief Minister. Earlier, the maximum number was held by Pawan Chamling, who became Sikkim Chief Minister for a fifth time in a row. The Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs had earlier met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to stake claim to form the government in the state. 14 ministers each from the BJP and the JD(U) will be reportedly sworn-in tomorrow. The BJP earlier had declared 'unconditional support' for Nitish. "Nityanand Rai ji and I called Nitish ji. The BJP has decided to support him. We will support the government formed under him. We will inform the governor also," BJP leader Sushil Modi told ANI. The BJP leader, however, had maintained silence over the kind of support or place that would be given to Nitish, and said further decisions will be taken later. "We have accepted him as a BJP leader, and further decisions will be taken later," he said. Bihar saw a major turn of events on Wednesday evening when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, instead of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, as was being speculated and expected. Nitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and confirmed it to the media even as he emerged after meeting him. "The Governor has accepted my resignation. I did everything a chief of a party in alliance should do. I myself have given away the post. Now, you will have to wait and see what happens next," he said. "Lalu had told me to run the government that's in this distress. I never asked for anybody's resignation. I asked Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav to prove false the allegations slapped against them." "It had become difficult for me to work in this enviroment. When I sided by demonetisation, they alleged me of having an ulterior motive. People had started believing falsely-reported things," he added. The development came hours after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav earlier in the day took a jibe at Nitish Kumar, saying he was aware of his longtime friend's party's - Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) - growing bonhomie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Lalu also gave a pointed reminder that his party has the most number of seats in the legislature. Addressing a press conference, he also said, "I made him the Chief Minister," however, asserting that all was well with him. The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006. The RJD supremo, however, had refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP. Since then, the BJP had been mounting pressure on Nitish to oust Tejashwi Yadav from the party. Various internal meetings in the JD(U) and the RJD has also been taking place, every now and then, fuelling the reports and rumours that Tejashwi would soon quit the Cabinet. The RJD, including Tejashwi himself and Lalu Yadav, had been asserting that Tejashwi would not resign, come what may. Meanwhile, following Nitish's resignation, Governor Tripathi was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, due to a nose infection. (ANI)