Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wins trust vote in Bihar Assembly

Jitendra K Shrivastava

Tribune News Service

Patna, July 28

Nitish Kumar on Friday won the Trust Vote in the Bihar Assembly a day after he took oath as Chief Minister to head the JD-U-BJP government after dumping the Grand Alliance.

In a 243-member Bihar Assembly, 131 members cast their votes in favour of Nitish Kumar and 108 went against.

The RJD staged a walked out of the House after the Nitish government won the trust vote.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's speech in Bihar Assembly.

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RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, spoke first on the confidence motion and launched a scathing attack against Kumar for dumping the Grand Alliance government.

RJD MLAs protested in the portico of Assembly, signalling their aggressive mood ahead of the trust vote.

Live telecast of House proceedings is prohibited and reporters not allowed to use their mobile phones inside.

Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi had asked the chief minister yesterday to seek a confidence vote within two days of his swearing in.

Kumar, 66, was sworn in yesterday, returning to the National Democratic Alliance after four years.

The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs to the governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53,  RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three independents.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

The Janata Dal-United leaders said Nitish Kumar was "calm and cool" and spent the early morning at his official residence as usual, not worried about the trust vote.  —With Agencies