NIL
Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM
Patna, May 17 (IBNS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Saturday, following a crushing defeat of his Janata Dal-United (JD-U) at the hands of ally-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections.
The ruling JD-U managed to win just two of the 40 seats in Bihar while the BJP and its allies swept away 31 seats, Friday's results showed, prompting Kumar to resign and recommend the dissolution of the state assembly.
"I respect the mandate of the people," Kumar had said a day ago, conceding the huge defeat.
The 63-year-old former BJP-ally's move is could trigger state assembly polls sooner even though they were due by November next year.
The split with the BJP and the desertion of several top leaders had left the JD-U weak in the run up to the elections and Kumar was at the helm of a minority government.
Some political analysts said that Kumar was left without a choice but to resign as he was seen losing power, underscored by the fact that six of his ministers who had voiced dissent at parting with the BJP, did not attend a cabinet meeting on Friday - hinting at government collapse.
Kumar had parted ways with the BJP after the right-wing Hindu nationalist party pitched Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate eight months ago.
Narendra Modi led the BJP to the most resounding victory in 30 years in a national election as the party won 283 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats and the led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to 337 tally well above the halfway mark.
The ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), facing strong resentment over a series of corruption scandals and lax governance, was routed to just 59 seats.
(Reporting by Divyanshu Dutta Roy in New Delhi)
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