BJP threatens to withdraw support to Nitish Kumar govt

 

Patna, 15 Jun 2013 (TOI): The BJP on Saturday threatened to withdraw its support to the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. The Bihar NDA convenor and the road construction minister in the Nitish Kumar government, Nand Kishore Yadav is going to hand over a letter to the Bihar governor informing him about the withdrawal of the BJP’s support to the ruling coalition, sources said on Saturday.

 

The letter will make a claim that the government has been reduced to a minority and therefore demand dismissal of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Yadav who is a BJP member will also seek resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar formally, according to sources.

 

The BJP has 91 members in the assembly and JD(U) 118 in the 243-member House. The BJP, in 2010, had extended its support to the JD(U) and to Nitish Kumar, who was elected the leader of the NDA.

 

The BJP-JD(U) having come to a pass, Yadav will now inform the governor that Nitish Kumar was no more the leader of the NDA legislature party and, hence, could not fulfil his legal obligations, said a senior BJP leader here on Saturday. Yadav and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who were called by Nitish Kumar for a meeting at the CM House on Saturday morning, refused to meet the CM. Yadav said there was no point in meeting Nitish as the scope for negotiations had completely exhausted. "We are not authorised to talk to the CM by our central leaders who had been talking to him frequently," Yadav said and claimed that the deputy CM had declined the chief minister’s invitation.

 

The BJP ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet will boycott the Janata Darbar scheduled for Monday. Nitish had sent formal invitation letters to the ministers seeking their presence in the Darbar. Sushil Kumar Modi has already stopped travelling in his red beacon-fitted government vehicle.

 

Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP’s general secretary in charge of Bihar affairs, told TNN on Saturday morning: "Now, there is no merit in having further negotiations with the Bihar CM who had brought his intentions in public domain by asking the BJP not to field Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. How can he dictate terms to our party?" Pradhan asked.

 

He said the top leaders of the party including L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh talked to Nitish Kumar in the last three days and tried to convince him about remaining in the NDA, but he has become adamant on the Modi issue, which was never a part of the NDA agenda. "People voted for NDA for good governance and to get rid of the "jungle raj" in the state and now Nitish is hell bent upon walking out of the NDA on a frivolous ground."

 

Pradhan said the BJP ministers in the Nitish cabinet would not submit their papers, but would wait for the CM to announce unilateral withdrawal from the NDA and dismiss them. "The BJP is keen to maintain the NDA, but Nitish Kumar is finding excuses to pull out of the alliance."