Patna: Patna, May 17 (IANS) :Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor D.Y. Patil Saturday, an official source said.
Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation a day after his party faced poorly in the Lok Sabha election. Janata Dal-United won barely two seats out of 40 parliamentary constituencies in the state.
He had snapped ties with 17-year-old ally BJP last year over Narendra Modi’s elevation, a move that many believed had backfired spectacularly.
The BJP won a landslide victory with 282 seats in the 543 member Parliament; the party won over 333 seats with its allies.
Yesterday, he had said, “I respect the mandate of the people.”
After his party’s crushing defeat, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, his former deputy, had said, “Nitish Kumar should take moral responsibility and resign. He has lost the confidence of the people.”
Mr Kumar’s government was in a minority in the Bihar assembly and there was speculation the dissent within his party will grow, with support from the opposition.
On the back of a hugely popular BJP-JD(U) government that was in power in Bihar between 2004 and 2009, Nitish Kumar’s party had won 20 of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats. Alliance partners BJP won a further 12.