Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM; takes 'full responsibility' for poll debacle

NEW DELHI: Taking 'full moral responsibility' for the poll debacle suffered by JD(U) in the Lok Sabha polls, Nitish Kumar on Saturday resigned from the post of Bihar Chief Minister. "I have tendered the resignation of my council of ministers to Governor," Kumar said.

"I take full responsibility for the Lok Sabha results. The kind of communal polarisation that happened during this election campaign has never happened before," Kumar said. "This is not a good thing. The results do not bode well, but we respect the mandate of the people," Kumar added.

"A lot of promises have been made by BJP. They have shown the youth dreams of more jobs, I hope they are able to fulfill them," Kumar said.

Reacting to Kumar's resignation, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "Those who betrayed us and carried out a 'hate Modi' campaign have been given a fitting reply." "Nitish called us communal & Bihar gave him a fitting reply. He must take moral responsibility," Javadekar said.

Earlier in the day, speculations were rife that party legislators would desert him following the Janata Dal-United's humiliating debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

It is the first time that voices of dissent have surfaced over poor performance and have also questioned Nitish Kumar's leadership. The JD-U won only two of the 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar. In 2009, it won 20 seats when it was in alliance with the BJP.

This time, the BJP won 22 seats and its ally the Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) won six and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) won three seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won four, while its ally Congress two and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged one seat.

Political watchers said that the JD-U's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls is bound to impact the state government.

After registering a landslide victory in alliance with BJP, LJP had forecast the fall of Nitish Kumar government in Bihar shortly and a mid-term elections in the state by October-November this year.

"The Nitish Kumar government will fall on its own in the next 2-3 months and the people will have to give a fresh mandate for a good state government by October-November this year," LJP president Ramvilas Paswan had told reporters.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)