Nitish calls meeting of JD-U legislators on Saturday

PATNA: After returning from a high tea event held at the Raj Bhavan here, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with his trusted ministers and MLAs at his residence on Friday evening. The Chief Minister also called for a meeting with all the JD-U MLAs at his residence on Saturday.

Speculation are rife that Nitish Kumar will soon be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a seventh term with the support of his previous ally BJP. The BJP will get two Deputy CM posts for backing Nitish Kumar, as was done after the 2020 Assembly elections, sources said.

As per sources, Nitish Kumar is formulating strategy to form the government with the BJP and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar's trusted leaders such as Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Bijendra Gupta and Sanjay Jha, among others, were present at the CM's residence during the meeting on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, the CMO has asked all the JD-U MLAs to reach Patna by Friday night.

Nitish Kumar is expected to announce his resignation before them and also give clarification as to what prompted him to take such a step.

Following the meeting, Nitish Kumar will submit his resignation officially to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. He will also claim to form the government with the support of the BJP and HAM.

At present, JD-U has 45 MLAs, BJP 76 and HAM 4, totalling 125 MLAs, three more than 122 -- the magic figures required to form the government.

It will be interesting if a few MLAs don't turn up for Saturday's meeting, as that might make life tough for Nitish Kumar as well as the NDA.

Besides JD-U, the BJP and the RJD have also called meeting of their MLAs on Saturday.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is monitoring the situation very closely. At present, RJD has 79 MLAs, Congress 19 and the Left parties 12.