State BJP president Mangal Pandey (centre) addresses the news meet in Patna on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash

The BJP and its allies on Monday dismissed Nitish Kumar’s resignation as a “scripted drama” enacted to save his leadership in the JD(U) amid a growing clamour against him within the party and claimed that the next JD(U) chief minister would be his dummy.

Hours before Nitish named Jitan Ram Manjhi as his “political heir”, senior BJP leaders Modi Kumar said: “The new government would be remote controlled by Nitish. He will choose such a candidate as the chief minister who will be a dummy.”

Modi said the JD(U) led by Nitish was following the path of the Congress and the RJD. “The UPA-I and II governments had dummy Prime Minister in Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi used to run them through remote control. Similarly, Nitish would have the remote control of the new JD(U) government,” he said.

Modi also gave the example of Lalu Prasad running the Rabri Devi-led government through remote control when his name surfaced in fodder scam.

Nand Kishore, the Leader of Opposition in Assembly, also attacked Nitish claiming that he was the script writer of the entire political drama because he had been facing severe resentment within his party after the debacle of the JD(U) in the Lok Sabha elections. He claimed that there were bitter differences between Nitsih and Sharad Yadav, the JD(U) president, and the party was on the verge of split.

Nand Kishore also said that Nitish decided to step down realising that he had made too many promises, which were difficult to fulfil in the next one-and-a-half years.

The state BJP president, Mangal Pandey said: “The BJP was neither in favour of the dissolution of the Assembly, nor mid-term elections. But there is instability in the state because of the current political situation created by Nitish.”

Nitish drew flak away from home as well. The LJP chief and BJP ally Ram Vilas Paswan said: “This (resignation) is a drama. His (Kumar's) leadership is under threat after the JD(U) suffered a rout in Bihar,” Paswan told reporters following a meeting with the BJP president, Rajnath Singh.

The newly elected BJP MP from Pataliputra, Ram Kripal Yadav, also termed the entire episode a “drama” and sought fresh elections in the JD(U)-ruled state. Ram Kripal, who had left the Lalu Prasad-led RJD before the general election, defeated the latter’s daughter Misa Bharti in the poll battle.

“The entire move of Nitish Kumar tendering resignation was scripted. He is a good actor and has received special training in dramatics. He uses and throws people out,” Ram Kripal said.        

Former home secretary R.K. Singh, who won a parliamentary seat from Ara in Bihar on a BJP ticket, said the Bihar government was in “coma” and on its “deathbed”. “Nitish Kumar has not had cordial relations with big leaders and there is so much dissent. I had earlier also said that this was all a drama. This drama is being done to counter the dissent,” Singh said.

Senior BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey scotched the rumours that several BJP leaders were in New Delhi for trying to form the government in Bihar. He said no such talks were going on and added that the BJP did not have the majority in the Assembly.