Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on 17th May submitted his resignation to Governor D.Y. Patil on Saturday, a day after his party Janata Dal (United) suffered a drubbing in the general elections.
An official at the Chief Minister’s residence confirmed that Mr. Kumar has put in his papers.
Since the JD (U) fared poorly in the Lok Sabha election, there was speculation the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar may fall as party legislators would desert him.
Mr. Kumar has been in the saddle since Nov 24, 2005, and won a second term in the 2010 assembly elections.
The JD (U) won only two of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar. In 2009, it won 20 seats in alliance with the BJP.
This time, the BJP won 22 seats and its allies, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won six and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) won three seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won four, while its ally Congress bagged two and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) managed to win one seat.
Another setback for Nitish Kumar was that then JD (U) bagged only one of five assembly seats where bypolls were held along with the Lok Sabha polls. The RJD bagged three seats and the BJP took one.
Upbeat over unexpected victory, the Bharatiya Janata Party has already demanded the resignation of Nitish Kumar for his party’s rout in polls.
