Above: Patna High Court  

Bihar’s freshly reinstalled chief minister Nitish Kumar has not only won the floor test to secure his position again at the top of the state’s government, this time with the help of the BJP, but he has now won in court too.

On Monday (July 31) the Patna High Court, as expected, dismissed the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) petition against JD(U)-BJP government. The plea was against the formation of the new Bihar government, asking a stay on the floor test.

The petition, filed by RJD legislator Saroj Yadav on July 28, was accepted by the court, but it refused to put a stay on the floor test, stating that hearing won’t be possible before July 31, by which time the floor test would have been completed.  Nitish got 131 votes.

In a whirlwind week, Nitish had quickly resigned as Bihar Chief Minister and had as quickly aligned with the BJP. His resignation was on the charge of corruption within the RJD against Lalu’s son Tejashwi. Tejashwi has been charged with holding benami property by the CBI and Nitish wanted his resignation which Lalu had firmly said he would not.

That broke the back of the so-called Mahagathbandhan. The junior party in this alliance, the Congress, remained mere onlookers, thrown completely out of the game in the state.

—India Legal Bureau