Jitan Ram Manjhi Out and Nitish Kumar In Saturday Feb 08,2015

The ruling Janata Dal-United legislature party on saturday Feb 08,2015 elected former chief minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in place of the Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi shortly after the state Cabinet okayed the dissolution of the state Assembly amid high drama

The legislature party meeting — convened by JD(U) president Sharad Yadav — “unanimously” decided to remove Manjhi and elect Nitish in his place. 

Accepting the decision of the party, Nitish Kumar said that he was ready to take back the responsibility

The JD(U) legislature party meeting convened by Sharad began at around 4pm in the Bihar Assembly premises in which Nitish was unanimously chosen as the new leader of the legislature party. 

Altogether, 97 legislators of the JD(U) out of the total 111 were present at the meeting. 

With the support of 24 MLAs of the RJD, five of the Congress, one of the CPI and two others, including the Speaker, the party claimed the support of 130 MLAs. 

That’s 13 more than the magic number of 117 which is required to form government in the state. 

In the 243-member Assembly, 10 seats are lying vacant at the moment. 

At the meeting Nitish said that a political conspiracy had been hatched to destabilise the party at the behest of the BJP. 

But senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, “What circumstances have come to the fore that Nitish has now decided to replace the Mahadalit chief minister with himself?”

Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has recommended the dissolution of the Assembly to pre-empt his mentor-turned-rival and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar’s attempts to replace him.

On Saturday, Nitish Kumar, who was elected leader of the JD(U) legislature party, is set to stake claim to form a new government and urged the Governor to reject Mr. Manjhi’s recommendation, arguing that he had lost the majority