Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday, ending his 20-month-old Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly tweeting his approval of Nitish’s move against his deputy and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejaswi’s alleged corruption, the acrimonious end of the Grand Alliance marked the beginning of Nitish’s second innings with the BJP.

The BJP will support Nitish’s government. The alternative alliance has the required numbers — the Janata Dal (United) has 71 MLAs and the BJP, 58 (with its allies) — which gives the new alliance a majority strength of 129 in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

Late on Wednesday evening, BJP chief Amit Shah called Bihar leader Sushil Modi to inform him of the central parliamentary board’s decision to support Nitish and join the government. Sushil Modi said he had informed Nitish of the BJP’s decision and a meeting of the BJP’s legislature party had been called in Patna.

“The BJP has decided to support Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. The BJP would be part of the government,” said Sushil Modi who is part of a three-member committee with Nityanand Rai and Prem Kumar to coordinate and strategise with the central party.

The PM himself congratulated Nitish on his fight against corruption. “Many many congratulations to Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. Over one billion citizens are welcoming and supporting his honesty,” tweeted Modi.

The BJP would stage a comeback in Bihar only two years after it suffered a humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections at the hands of Nitish and Lalu with Congress playing the tail-ender. “The State party has met and decided to appoint a three-member committee, which includes me. What is clear is that no one wants a mid-term election,” said Sushil Modi in Patna.

Ending uncertainty Nitish Kumar’s stunning move to quit came after weeks of uncertainty over a CBI FIR against Lalu, his son Tejaswi, and others in a corruption case.

The CBI and the Income-Tax Department have conducted several raids and questioned Lalu’s family over a number of illegal transactions and on acquisition of property. Nitish had publicly asked Lalu’s son, who was Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar till Wednesday, to give an explanation and privately conveyed to him that he should quit.

Lalu asserted that Tejaswi would not do so. Nitish took the moral high ground and resigned, quoting Mahatma Gandhi to his alliance partner: “Nature has enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed. When there are serious allegations, it is required of those who hold high offices to act appropriately.”

Nitish said he did not specifically ask for Tejaswi’s resignation but the situation had become such that his conscience did not allow him to continue. “I had told Tejaswi and Laluji that they must explain the charge publicly. The atmosphere had become such that it was impossible to work. My conscience told me to quit,” said Nitish after submitting his resignation to the Governor.

Lalu upset While the BJP has decided to back him, the possibility of any reconciliation with Lalu seemed remote. Lalu accused Nitish of going back to “supporting the communal forces” because he is haunted by an old murder case. Maintaining that “murder is worse than corruption”, Lalu said Nitish was part of a conspiracy hatched by the BJP to destabilise secular forces in the country.

“Nitish Kumar is facing a murder charge. That is why he is going back to the BJP. He probably feels threatened that he would be exposed,” said Lalu, reading from a case file. This case pertains to the murder of Congress worker Sitaram Singh in 1991 and has been long dubbed by the JD(U) as a political move by Nitish’s opponents to defame him.

“Why wasn’t this brought up when Lalu had joined hands with Nitish Kumar? Lalu is only trying to defame Nitish when his political stature hs risen in the country,” said JD(U) MP KC Tyagi.

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