Patna, July 24: For the first time in his nearly eight years in office as the chief minister, Nitish Kumar is set to face a numerically potent Opposition during the monsoon session of the state legislature starting on Friday.

Even during his previous tenure (2005-10), the JD(U)-BJP combine led by him had 143 MLAs against the requirement of 122 in the 243-member Assembly with the main Opposition then being the RJD having only 55 MLAs — a figure hardly sufficient to affect the Nitish government’s health.

After breaking ranks with the JD(U), the BJP with its 91 MLAs today has joined the main opposition benches and is now breathing down the neck of the chief minister in what is being described in the fashion of a jilted lover.

The incidents like the terror attacks at Bodhgaya, the holiest of the Buddhist shrines, the killing of six persons in a police firing at Bagaha and the death of 23 children after consuming poisonous food at a primary school in Saran district have given enough ammunition to the opponents to fire from all cylinders on him.

“We will bring an adjournment motion against the Nitish government for its multiple failures — killing of innocent people at Bagaha in police firing, death of school kids in such a huge number and the terror attacks on a holy shrine are all an outcome of the total collapse of the system,” the BJP parliamentary party leader, Sushil Kumar Modi, said.

The problem with Nitish is that his government, for the first time, has fallen into minority with 118 MLAs and it is dependent on the support of four Independents and three Congress MLAs.

Reports are doing the rounds that a large number of legislators are exerting pressure on him to induct them into the ministry.

However, the chief minister has put up a brave face. “The Opposition cannot become strongly simply with numbers at its disposal. It (read BJP) hardly has the content to speak. The people of Bihar had given it (BJP) the mandate to govern Bihar with the support of the JD(U). But they walked out of the alliance by raising the issue which in no way was concerned with the cause of the state and the mandate of the people.”

Without naming Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, Nitish said: “The people of the state had not given the mandate in 2010 to delve in something that was not related to Bihar. We had made them known well in advance what would happen to the alliance if they violated the message of the 2010 mandate. There was no way out other than what has happened with alliance today given their deviation.”

Nitish, however, said: “The government was ready to discuss each and every issue raised by the Opposition threadbare in the House. I am not someone to be pinned down or carried away by the false and baseless propaganda.”

The legislature parties of the RJD and BJP are scheduled to have their formal meetings tomorrow to fine-tune the strategy to grill the government on the floor.