PATNA: In a fresh bid to put pressure on Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathy, Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar left for New Delhi on Tuesday evening with MLAs who support him to parade them before President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday.
Nitish along with all the 130 legislators who support him flied to Delhi on Tuesday evening as the Governor failed to take any decision within 24 hours of his claim to form the next government. Nitish expressed the apprehension of likely horse-trading and said, “It appears that Manjhi got the licence of horse-trading particularly after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders in New Delhi recently”.
“There is no justification for delaying the invitation to form new government after I submitted letter of support from 130 MLAs,” Nitish said.
Disagreeing with Manjhi’s plea for secret voting during confidence vote, Nitish said it would be a violation of the 10th Schedule and rules didn’t permit it.
Acknowledging his mistake Nitish said he made Manjhi Chief Minister with good intentions, but in due course of time it proved wrong.
He said, when it became known that Manjhi was compromising on the issue of good governance, I took up the leadership on the requests of our workers.
“But when it became clear that governance on the basis of which Bihar was brought back on the track and being recognised in the world was being compromised, I had no choice but to accept the request of party leaders and workers to take leadership once again,” he said.
Nitish also threatened to sit in the Opposition if Manjhi is allowed to prove majority in the House.
Meanwhile making a new move to woo the Dalits, Manjhi approved reservation to the Schedule Caste /Schedule Tribes in government contract and simultaneously his Cabinet also announced formation of a three-member committee to implement reservation in government jobs for the poor among the upper caste population.