PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held his last cabinet meeting on Tuesday, hours before he is expected to tender his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hussain. The meeting, which lasted for about half an hour, was attended by all cabinet colleagues.
During the meeting, Nitish assured the cabinet colleagues that he would cooperate with the new government to be formed in the state. He told them to work together to carry out further development work under the new government.
A new NDA government, to be headed by a BJP chief minister, would be sworn in on Wednesday. Nitish, who is also the JD (U) president, said that a lot of work had been done during his tenure as chief minister and more work would be done in the future.
He exuded confidence that Bihar would continue to proceed on the development path. He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending full support to the state government for the development of the state for the last 11 years.
Talking to media persons after the cabinet meeting, state SC/ST Welfare Minister and two-term BJP MLA from Patepur, Lakhendra Kumar Roushan alias Lakhendra Paswan, said, “Nitish Ji asked all his cabinet colleagues to work for the state’s development.” He said that Nitish Kumar would continue to guide the new government.
Not only Nitish but all ministers in his cabinet turned emotional at the meeting. Agriculture minister Ram Kripal Yadav also corroborated Lakhendra Paswan’s remarks.
Food and Consumer Protection Minister Lesi Singh told the media, “Nobody is happy with Nitish Kumar’s exit as chief minister. But we have to abide by his decision. It was his own decision to move to Rajya Sabha.”
Nitish is expected to submit his resignation to the Governor at around 3 pm. Before that, he will chair JD(U)’s legislature party meeting. Later in the day, NDA will hold a legislature party meeting to elect its leader.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP national president Nitin Nabin and Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde reached Patna from New Delhi. Chouhan has been appointed as the central observer to oversee the election of the BJP legislature party leader.
Nitish’s resignation will mark a major shift in the state politics as his over two-decade rule has a distinct character. He managed to contain the BJP’s Hindutva politics to a large extent even while sharing power with the saffron party.
At the same time, Nitish also checked RJD from playing out caste politics and also from Yadav hegemony returning to the political and social arena while running the government with Lalu’s party in the state.
Nitish’s departure from state politics also marks the end of a long political era after he became a member of the Rajya Sabha, as he is considered the last major leader of the socialist JP-movement era in Bihar.
Through his special thrust on inclusive growth and women empowerment, he built a strong support base of non-Yadav OBCs, particularly Kurmis and Kushwahas (known as Luv-Kush), EBCs, Mahadalits and women. But Nitish’s exit from state politics is definitely going to raise some questions, most importantly, what will happen to his core voter support base as he finally moves to the Rajya Sabha. On April 10, Nitish took the oath as a member of Upper House of the parliament.
