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Head of India’s Bihar quits after losing party backing

By AFP
20 February 2015   |   7:46 am
THE chief minister of one of India's biggest states resigned on Friday after weeks of political turmoil, paving the way for the return of his popular predecessor. Jitan Ram Manjhi was left with little choice but to quit as chief minister of eastern Bihar state after he lost the backing of his Janata Dal (United)…

THE chief minister of one of India’s biggest states resigned on Friday after weeks of political turmoil, paving the way for the return of his popular predecessor.

Jitan Ram Manjhi was left with little choice but to quit as chief minister of eastern Bihar state after he lost the backing of his Janata Dal (United) party.

He resigned hours before a confidence vote he was certain to lose, capping weeks of political uncertainty in India’s third most populous state, which is also one of the nation’s poorest.

Manjhi said he had decided to resign after his position became untenable and his supporters began receiving death threats.

He was booted out of the JD(U) earlier this month after defying an order from his one-time mentor and predecessor Nitish Kumar to vacate the position and allow him to return as chief minister.

Soon after Manjhi was formally expelled, Kumar was unanimously elected as leader of his party.

“Our stand has been vindicated,” a smiling Kumar told reporters in the state capital Patna on Friday as jubilant legislators flashed victory signs and hugged each other.

Kumar has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to engineer a split in the JD(U) ahead of state elections later this year by backing Manjhi.

The 63-year-old resigned as chief minister in the aftermath of last May’s general election when the JD(U) saw its share of seats in the national parliament collapse.

Kumar had been generally popular after presiding over the highest economic growth rates in the country.

But he made a major error by ending an electoral alliance with the BJP after falling out with its leader Narendra Modi, now India’s prime minister.

The JD(U) is pitching Kumar as the face of its election campaign and has allied with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal to take on the BJP.

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