Nitish resignation 'scripted drama': Paswan

LJP chief said JD(U) government will soon collapse and Bihar would see fresh elections in the coming month

Bihar BJP leaders and their ally Ram Vilas Paswan today dismissed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation as a "scripted drama" enacted to save his leadership in JD(U) amidst a growing clamour against him within the party.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan claimed that the JD(U) government will soon collapse and Bihar would see fresh elections in the coming months.

"This (resignation) is a drama. His (Kumar's) leadership is under threat after JD(U) suffered a rout in Bihar," Paswan said following a meeting with BJP president Rajnath Singh. LJP won six of the seven Lok Sabha seats it contested in Bihar.

The newly-elected BJP MP from Patliputra, Ram Kripal Yadav, also termed the entire Nitish Kumar episode a "drama" and sought fresh elections in the JD(U)-ruled state.

Ram Kripal, who had left the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD before the recently-concluded general elections, defeated the latter's daughter Misa Bharti in the poll battle.

"The entire move of Nitish Kumar tendering resignation was scripted. He is a good actor and has received special training in dramatics. He uses and throws people out. For him, power is like fish without water," Ram Kripal said.

Later, after meeting top RSS functionaries in the national capital, Ram Kripal told reporters, "It is a drama... Going as per a script. Let us see what happens."

Asked whether BJP will try and form a government in Bihar, he said, "In the coming days, BJP and NDA will form the government. The people have given mandate to BJP. The era of regional parties has ended. RJD, JD(U), their time has ended."

Earlier, former Home Secretary RK Singh, who won a parliamentary seat from Ara in Bihar on a BJP ticket, also met RSS officials in New Delhi and said that the Bihar government is in "coma" and on its "deathbed".

"Nitish Kumar has not had cordial relations with big leaders and there is so much dissent. I had earlier also said that this was all a drama. This drama is being done to counter the dissent," Singh said.