Bihar will have a new chief minister chosen by Nitish Kumar who on Monday refused to take back his resignation despite repeated pleas by JD(U) legislators to continue in office.
Bihar JD(U) President Basistha Narayan Singh told newsmen after a crucial meeting of the JD(U) legislature party here that it was decided that Kumar would continue to lead the party and coordinate between the party and the state government.
Time has been sought from Governor D Y Patil and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, Kumar and he would go to the Raj Bhawan, Singh said.
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On the JD(U)LP meeting, the second on the issue since Sunday, he said the legislators accepted Kumar’s decision to stick to his decision to resign with a heavy heart and authorised him to choose a new leader to head the JD(U) government.
He refused to provide any name as the next Chief minister and said Kumar had been authorised to decide it.
“He (Kumar) will take a decision to select a new leader to become CM soon,” Singh, who was flanked by state minister Shyam Rajak and two MLCs and state party spokespersons Sanjay Singh and Neeraj Kumar, said.
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Singh said Sharad Yadav and JD(U) National General Secretary K C Tyagi were present at the meeting where he proposed the resolution accepting Kumar’s resignation and authorising him to choose a new leader.
Senior minister Narendra Singh, whose name was initially doing the rounds as a replacement, seconded the resolution which was passsed unanimously by the JD(U) legislators. The resolution, he said, welcomed Kumar’s decision to resign taking moral responsbility for the party’s rout in the just concluded parliamentary polls in which it won only 2 of the 40 LS seats.