Governor stops Laloo, swears in Nitish

Governor stops Laloo, swears in Nitish
ARUN SRIVASTAVA

PATNA, MARCH 3: The numbers game in Bihar took a bizarre turn on Friday when Governor Vinod Chandra Pandey invited Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar to become the new Bihar Chief Minister.

The Governor's decision came after the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal reached a tie-up, making Rabri Devi the frontrunner for the chief minister's post.

Then the Governor sprang a surprise. Within hours of his inviting Kumar to form the government, the Samata Party leader had been sworn in as Bihar's chief minister.

As the news spread, Opposition parties screamed against the ``murder of democracy'' and Laloo Prasad Yadav threatened to launch an agitation. Giving a call for a Bihar bandh on March 5, Laloo Prasad Yadav described the Governor as the wrecker of the Constitution and urged the RJD rank and file to force him to leave Bihar.

Pandey has given Nitish ten days to prove his majority on the floor of the House. Realising that they lost the initiative with the Governor extending invitation to Nitish Kumar at 11 in the morning, Laloo Prasad rushed to Raj Bhawan with a letter from PCC chief Sadanand Singh. The letter from Singh was delivered to Governor at around 1:30 pm. By then, Pandey had already asked Nitish Kumar to form the government.

Laloo Prasad told newsmen that the Governor ignored the fact that RJD enjoyed the support of 161 members. He even said that the PCC chief had conveyed to the Governor over telephone his decision about supporting the RJD.

Outside Raj Bhawan, hundreds of RJD workers raised slogans against the Governor and accused him of throttling democracy. But the moment it was clear that Nitish Kumar would be sworn in, thousands of BJP and Samata workers assembled at the gate of Raj Bhawan. The RJD supporters silently withdrew from the scene.

After his swearing-in, Nitish Kumar listed law and order as his top priority. He said his main focus would be development. He assured a stable and clean government.

Before being sworn in as Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar told The Indian Express that Laloo's claim to form the government was ``hollow". He questioned why so far the Congress high command had not come out openly in his support. Meanwhile, NDA submitted eight more letters from members raising its strength to 154.

Senior RJD leaders confided that they had lost hope of the party forming the government the moment Laloo landed in Patna last night without any assurance from Congress leaders.