Justifying its decision to support Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar to form a new government with the NDA in Bihar, BJP leaders said on Sunday that the saffron party took the decision in favour of Bihar people so that the state could move forward on the path of development.

Bringing closure to the fast-unravelling political developments during the day, Nitish Kumar handed his resignation letter to Governor Rajendra Arlekar along with letters of support from the state BJP legislators.

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The Janata Dal(U) chief resigned as the chief minister of the state after severing ties with the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ as he said, “things were not going well”. “I have exited the Mahagathbandhan,” declared Kumar after leaving the Raj Bhawan, and added that he had dissolved the government in the state.

On the BJP backing of Nitish Kumar to form a new government with the NDA in Bihar, BJP MP and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said, “We welcome Nitish Kumar’s decision. We knew that the RJD-JDU alliance was an unnatural alliance and would not last long. We are happy and now the JDU and the BJP will together form the government.”

Reacting to the development, former Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said, “The condition of Bihar would have been like West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took this decision in the interest of the people of Bihar. There was a jungle raj from 1990-2005, to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, this decision was taken. On behalf of the party, I thank PM Modi and party president JP Nadda.”

Union Minister Nityanand Rai said, “Today is an important day for Bihar. Nitish Kumar had said that RJD people were not allowing him to work and efforts were being made to create ‘Jungle Raj’. Now, when the BJP got Nitish ji’s proposal to form the government with us, the BJP decided the Bihar people’s favour and we will form the government with Nitish ji,” he said.

He asserted that Bihar will now move forward on the path of development and “We will win all 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar and PM Modi will be elected PM for the third time”.