Manjhi succumbs: To resign in favour of Nitish

His decision to quit came after 104 out of 115  party MLAs gave their written support in favour of Nitish.

Manjhi, who had fiercely opposed the Legislature Party meeting being called by JD(U) national President Sharad Yadav, however, made a last ditch attempt by proposing dissolution of the state Assembly, which was also opposed by two thirds of the ministers.

Manjhi met Nitish Kumar at the latter's residence where it was reportedly decided that Nitish would once again become the CM.

Manjhi was named as Bihar CM on May 17, 2014 after Nitish resigned following the party's electoral drubbing in the last Lok Sabha  polls.

But after becoming the CM, Manjhi decided to go his way and even replaced several bureaucrats who were close to Nitish with officers from the Dalit community .

Time and again Manjhi's statements praising BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also left his party embarrassed.

On Friday Manjhi termed the  proposed Legislature Party meeting as 'aunauthorised' and himself called a parallel  meeting of the body in his capacity as Leader of the House.

Sulking at the attempt to bring Nitish back to CM's throne, Majhi had contended on the previous day  that the right to call such meetings rests with the leader of the Legislature Party or the Chief Minister.

However,. JD(U) General Secretary K C Tyagi has described the Legislature Party meeting called by the party President as “valid”. He says according to JD(U) constitution, the President has the power to call a meeting of Legislature Party.

"Nitish Kumar had made Manjhi Chief Minister for the full term. He has made many irresponsible statements and has been growing close to the BJP. Nitish Kumar tried to discuss with him many times but the script has been prepared in Delhi. Amit Shah and Narendra Modi have scripted this. Calling a parallel meeting going against the party President is indiscipline, there could be a possible action against him. We will choose new leader," he said..

The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 with five vacancies. The ruling camp is 145-MLA strong with JDU (115), RJD (24), Congress (5) and Communist Party of India (1). The opposition camp of 93 MLAs is led by the BJP (88) and Independents (5).