Nitish Kumar wins floor test with 130 MLAs in Bihar

Patna: Gathering the support of 130 MLAs, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's National Democratic Alliance government won the floor test on Monday here at the state legislative Assembly, Scroll.in reported.

During Kumar's speech, Rashtriya Janata Dal MLAs, who were the Opposition as well as Kumar's former ally, walked out of the House.

Further, three Rashtriya Janata Dal MLAs, Prahlad Yadav, Neelam Devi and Chetan Anand, defected to the NDA.

In the Assembly session, a no-confidence motion was passed against Speaker Awadh Bihari Choudhary, with 125 MLAs voting to remove him from his post. This was before the trust vote.

It was on January 28 that Kumar resigned from the CM's chair and quit the Mahagathbandhan coalition, which involved Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. Later, he took oath as CM again, for a record ninth time, in a matter of hours after BJP extended support.

Earlier on Monday, the Rashtriya Janata Dal said that Kumar deployed thousands of police personnel to surround Tejashwi Yadav's home. The party informed through social media that it would not retreat but end up victorious.

When RJD confined their MLAs in Tejashwi Yadav's residence from Saturday evening, Congress took theirs to Hyderabad.

Kumar and his party, Janata Dal (United), had allied with the BJP twice before but broke up with them. It was in 2013 that the CM broke the alliance with the BJP for the first time, following the saffron party's projected Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate that year for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

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