NDA legislature party meeting on Sunday to pick Bihar’s CM, says Nitish Kumar

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders gathered at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s residence on Friday, the first such event after the election results, and decided to hold a meeting of newly elected legislators of the four partners in the coalition on Sunday (November 15).

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Kumar said that Friday’s meet was an informal interaction. “We sat together and decided to convene a meeting of elected legislators of all the four partners on November 15 at 12.30pm. All decisions will be taken in that meeting. After the meeting and election of the NDA leader, we will stake claim to form the government,” said Kumar.

The outgoing state Cabinet will be meeting for the last time on Friday and recommend dissolution of the assembly. “There will be a Cabinet meeting today,” said Kumar.

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An NDA leader said that the election of Nitish Kumar as the leader of the alliance in Bihar was a mere formality. “Even PM Modi had endorsed his name on Wednesday,” he said.

The NDA, which consists of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular and the Vikassheel Insaan Party, has won 125 seats in the 243-member assembly with the BJP alone winning 74 seats. The JD (U), which had 71 MLAs in 2015, had to settle for 43 seats while the HAM-S and the VIP won four seats each.

In the wake of the outcome, there has been intense speculation over the BJP’s share in the new cabinet and over Kumar’s role in the government. However, the BJP has reaffirmed that it will stick to the coalition dharma and that Kumar will remain as the CM.

BJP functionaries, meanwhile, said its legislature party meeting is likely to be held on November 16.