Nitish parades MLAs before President, seeks his intervention

Patna High Court stays Mr. Kumar’s recognition as JD(U) Legislature Party leader in place of Jitan Ram Manjhi.

JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar accused the BJP of horse-trading, at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Accompanied by Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar met President Pranab Mukherjee here on Wednesday evening to draw his attention to the simmering constitutional crisis in Bihar.

Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi’s “delay” in calling for an early floor test in the Assembly that would establish Mr. Kumar’s claim to replace Jitan Ram Manjhi as Chief Minister, they said, would only encourage horse-trading. As proof of the support Mr. Kumar enjoyed, 130 MLAs belonging to the JD(U), the RJD, the Congress and the CPI — who had flown in from Patna on Tuesday — stood in the evening chill of the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Emerging from the meeting with the President, Mr. Kumar told journalists that they had impressed on Mr. Mukherjee the need for an “immediate decision” as the BJP was “encouraging horse-trading.” “We need a swift decision in the interests of democracy,” he said, adding, the President had given them a patient hearing.

Meanwhile, the Patna High Court on Wednesday stayed Mr. Kumar’s recognition as the leader of the JD(U) Legislature Party in place of Mr. Manjhi.

BJP wary, Centre wants to play it by the book

“We intend to examine the legal implication of the letter issued by in-charge Secretary of Assembly [recognising Nitish Kumar as leader of JD(U) Legislature Party] so that the letter should have no legal consequences for a decision by the Governor,” a Patna High Court Bench said in its order, staying Mr. Kumar’s recognition as the leader of the JD(U) Legislature Party in place of Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The court said it would hear the matter again next Wednesday.

The court’s direction came in response to a PIL filed by JD(U) MLA Rajeshwar Raj, who is backing Mr. Manjhi.

In the national capital, meanwhile, the BJP battered by the drubbing it received in the Delhi Assembly polls appears to have distanced itself from the Bihar crisis: indeed, it has so far not given any indication that its 87 MLAs in Bihar could back Mr. Manjhi’s claims. The Centre, too, sources said, now wants to play it by the book. All this comes in the wake of the JD(U) legislature party electing Mr. Kumar as leader on Saturday.