Patna: The Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar took oath for a sixth time on Thrusday siding with BJP and betraying his senior Lalu Prasad Yadav. Nitish Kumar has pitched his break-up of his alliance with Lalu Yadav on the corruption charges against the latter's son, Tejashwi Yadav, who was No 2 in the Bihar government.
But the signs of a carefully plotted re-hitching with the BJP were virtually neon last night- the BJP took barely an hour after he resigned to proclaim it would tie up with him, the Prime Minister and Nitish Kumar exchanged warm tweets, and by this morning, a new government was in place ahead of a trust vote tomorrow.
Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD has 80 of Bihar's 243 law-makers. Nitish Kumar's JDU has 71, the BJP has 58 giving Nitish Kumar seven votes more than what he needs to remain Chief Minister. But of his own party's law-makers, five are Muslims and six are Yadavs, the caste that's loyal to Lalu - and Sharad Yadav is reportedly concerned about alienating them and the community through the renewed arrangement with the BJP.