New Delhi: Former Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) leader, Nitish Kumar, will today meet President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his intervention to break the political stalemate over change of guard in the state.
Kumar, accompanied by 130 MLAs, arrived here Tuesday night from Patna in two separate flights. All the lawmakers were later taken to a Greater Noida hotel.
According to sources, Kumar will meet the President at around 7 pm and seek his permission to parade 130 MLAs before him to show that he enjoys a majority in Bihar Assembly. Rashtrapati Bhavan sources, however, said that the President has so far not taken any call on Kumar's plea to present supporting MLAs before him.
The delegation will also submit a memorandum to the President demanding an end to the political limbo and invite Nitish to prove his majority on the floor of the House.
Kumar, who was elected as the new JD(U) Legislature Party Leader in place of Manjhi, and others have questioned the ‘delay' by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in defusing the political crisis in the state.
Besides 99 JD(U) MLAs, Kumar claimed that he enjoys support of RJD, Congress, CPI and independent legislators -- taking the toll to 130.
Before leaving for Delhi, Kumar told reporters at Patna airport that he was forced to take MLAs to the national capital to parade them before the President as Tripathi had not taken any decision.
"We took the entire bunch of 130 supporting MLAs to Raj Bhavan, gave letters of support from all of them on February 8. Then what is there to study... There is no rationale in delaying the decision to invite me to form a government," he said.
On the other hand, Manjhi has refused to resign from the post and claimed that he still enjoys support of a majority of MLAs. He has also agreed to Kumar's demanded that the Governor should call him to prove majority.
