Nitish set to win trust vote today
Despite tensions due to the statewide BJP bandh, Bihar’s ruling JD(U) leaders appeared content on Tuesday as they focused attention on the vote of confidence that chief minister Nitish Kumar will seek in the Assembly on Wednesday to rule without the BJP’s support.
With the JD(U) having 118 MLAs and the support of four of the state’s six Independent MLAs been “ensured with certainty,” Bihar CM Mr Kumar looks poised to start running a government without the cumbersome baggage of the BJP. The 122 MLAs in his kitty is just one more than the magic figure of 121 needed for a simple majority in the 243-member Assembly.
The four Independents who pledged support to the JD(U) are Dulal Chand Goswami, Som Prakash, Pawan Kumar Jaiswal and Vinay Bihari.
“He (Kumar) is certain about winning the confidence vote tomorrow and then continuing his work for Bihar’s progress despite the uncertainties inherent in such an obviously thin majority,” said a close aide of Mr Kumar, adding that the JD(U) has sensed tacit support from all “secular parties, except the RJD and LJP” in the trust vote.
While the CPI said its lone legislator would vote for the JD(U), the LJP’s lone legislator, Zakir Hussain Khan, has indicated that he might do the same.
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