Nitish Kumar wins trust vote

140 votes were polled in favour of Nitish Kumar in the 233-member Bihar assembly.

The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) coalition government on Wednesday won the confidence motion with a comfortable majority of 140 votes.

It appears that the MLAs who supported former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi too voted in favour of Mr. Kumar, to escape anti-defection law as party had issued whip to party MLAs. However, Mr. Manjhi was not present in the House.

The voting was held through "lobby division" on the request of Leader of House, Vijay Kumar Chaudhury.

The RJD too demanded voting through Lobby Division to clear the confusion over the number of memmbers supporting the government and those opposing it.

BJP MLAs had earlier staged walk-out from the Assembly protesting Mr. Kumar's speech in the House.

Earlier, when Mr. Manjhi had resigned from his post of Chief Minister on February 20, his mentor-turned-rival Mr. Kumar had replaced him as Chief Minister for the fourth time on February 22, the day the Governor had asked him to seek trust vote of the assembly before March 16.

Mr. Kumar had already submitted the list of 130 MLAs supporting his government to prove majority.

The RJD, Congress and one CPI along with an Independent candidate have already declared their support to Nitish government.

In the current 233-member assembly, with 10 seats remaining vacant, the Nitish Government needs the support of 117 legislators to win the trust vote.