BJP alleges Congress, RJD keeping Nitish govt afloat

The Opposition BJP today accused Congress and RJD of keeping the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar afloat.

"You must have seen Congress Legislature party leader Sadanand Singh throwing a challenge to BJP to bring a no confidence motion," Leader of the Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav here told reporters outside the Assembly.

"Similarly, RJD legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui is more critical of BJP than of JD(U)," Yadav said, accusing the two parties of a secret understanding with the chief minister to keep his government afloat.

"Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with only 116 MLAs including the Speaker does not have the required numbers. His government is surviving because of a makeshift arrangement with Congress, Independents and a CPI member," Yadav claimed on Kumar's challenge to his party to topple his government by bringing no confidence motion.

Kumar had won a trust vote with the help of four Congress members, four Independents and a CPI MLA in the 238-member House in June last year after severing ties with BJP.

Early in the day, BJP members created a ruckus in the Assembly over rejection of its notice for a special debate on Agriculture forcing Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary to adjourn the House till 12:30 pm.

When the House reassembled, the BJP members again trooped into well to protest the chief minister giving a clean chit to a JD(U) minister in the kidnapping of the son of a Gujarat businessman Hanif Hingora.