Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar Chief Minister

NEW DELHI (INDIA): Bihar saw a major turn of events on Wednesday evening when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, instead of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, as was being speculated and expected.nnNitish handed over his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.nnThe development came hours after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav earlier in the day took a jibe at Nitish Kumar, saying he was aware of his longtime friend’s party’s – Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) – growing bonhomie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).nnLalu also gave a pointed reminder that his party has the most number of seats in the legislature.nnAddressing a press conference, he also said, “I made him the Chief Minister,” however, asserting that all was well with him.nnThe CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.nnThe RJD supremo, however, had refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.nnSince then, the BJP had been mounting pressure on Nitish to oust Tejashwi Yadav from the party.nnVarious internal meetings in the JD(U) and the RJD has also been taking place, every now and then, fuelling the reports and rumours that Tejashwi would soon quit the Cabinet.nnThe RJD, including Tejashwi himself and Lalu Yadav, had been asserting that Tejashwi would not resign, come what may.nnSource: ANI