Patna:
In his fifth flip-flop in a decade, Nitish Kumar has resigned as Bihar Chief Minister after days of political speculation. Mr Kumar met Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar this morning and handed over his resignation.
“I have resigned as Chief Minister and ended this government. I was getting suggestions from all around. I had quit an earlier alliance for a new tie-up. But the situation was not okay. So I have resigned,” he told reporters.
On what comes next, he said “parties will meet and a decision will be taken”.
He also referred to the INDIA alliance and how things were not moving. “I got an alliance forged, but nobody was doing anything,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Opposition bloc that aims to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls this year.
This is Mr Kumar’s resignation in a political career, which saw his rise as a model of good governance before his repeated jumps across the political aisle hit is popularity and his party JDU’s electoral weight.
Mr Kumar is now expected to meet his party’s legislators before teaming up with the BJP again.