Rahul Gandhi Lashes Out At Nitish Kumar, Says People Can Do Anything To Stay In Power

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has lashed out at Nitish Kumar for resigning as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday and then, less than 24 hours later, taking an oath again to be the CM, only this time, hand-in-glove with the BJP.

Gandhi has slammed Nitish for betraying the Mahagathbandhan government of the JD-U, RJD and the Congress which had stormed to power with a brute majority less than two years ago in November 2015.

On Nitish's walking out of the grand alliance, he said they knew 'that it was being planned for the last three to four months,' adding that 'people can do anything to stay in power. They have no credibility, no discipline in them.'

Nitish drove to Raj Bhawan on Wednesday to submit his resignation to acting governor Keshri Nath Tripathi after a meeting of the Janata Dal-United legislature party, a move that has thrown Bihar into a vortex of political uncertainty.

Nitish said that the atmosphere had become such that it was impossible to work. “My conscience told me to quit,” he said after his resignation.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," he said.

But in a series of fast paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner.

First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's JD(U) MLAs.

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

Modi later told journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

With inputs from agencies