Patna,(BiharTimes): Nitish Kumar’s resignation from the post of chief ministership came as a surprise. But then this is not for the first time that he had enacted the resignation drama. He did so after a major rail mishap in 1999 only to become minister once again in the Union cabinet after a couple of months.

There is a gameplan. As his government is already in minority and has become quite vulnerable he is trying his level best to keep his flock together. As he has not recommended dissolution of the state Assembly and announced that the legislature party would elect its own leader, it is most likely that the MLAs may elect him once again. In this way he would try to take the wind out of the sails of the BJP.

The problem with the Janata Dal (United) is that it could win only one of the five Assembly seats, which went for by-polls and whose results were also announced on Friday. So by that criteria Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) has been rejected by the voters even for the state Assembly election. Ironically, the RJD won three of them while the BJP one. 

The by-poll results came as a surprise as many people thought that the Janata Dal (United) would do better in the Assembly. Of the five vacant seats, which went for poll two each belonged to JD(U) and BJP while only one by RJD. Even the RJD MLA, Akhtar-ul-Iman, later crossed over to the JD(U), 

Nitish has played the resignation politics in the past too. When Awadh Assam Mail and Brahmaputra Mail collided headed-on on August 2, 1999 he resigned as the railway minister. This resignation came just a month before the 1999 Lok Sabha election. Weeks after the Lok Sabha election Nitish was back in the Vajpayee cabinet.

The by-poll results has reduced the strength of the Janata Dal (United) in the Assembly further. The very survival of the government is being questioned.