Nitish Kumar wins floor test in Bihar assembly

The newly-formed Nitish Kumar government in Bihar won the crucial confidence vote in the assembly on Friday.

Nitish Kumar, who was sworn in afresh on Friday as chief minister of Bihar, won the trust vote with 131 legislators voting in favour of the JD(U)-BJP alliance and 108 MLAs voting against the motion.

Nitish Kumar who joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), had earlier submitted a list of 132 supporting MLAs to the governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and 3 independents.

In the 243-member Bihar assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs and the Congress 27 while the CPI-ML has 3 members.

Former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav had on Thursday claimed that his party has the largest numbers and that they had enough support to form government.

He also reiterated father Lalu Prasad Yadav's claim that Nitish had ''wrongfully contained'' several JD(U) MLAs.

After resigning as chief minister of Bihar and breaking off from the proposed grand alliance amid corruption allegations against the leaders of alliance partner Rashrtiya Janata Dal (RJD), Nitish accepted the NDA support to form a new government in Bihar.

Opposition parties accused Nitish of political opportunism since he had earlier criticised BJP and Narendra Modi during the 2015 Bihar assembly elections.

The trust vote was taken through lobby division.

Defending his decision to dissolve the ministry, Nitish Kumar said while he was for an alliance of like-minded parties, secularism should not be used to justify corruption. ''Won't support people who make money through wrong ways'', Nitish Kumar stated in the assembly.

Sushil Modi, who took charge as Bihar deputy CM, on the other hand, thanked Laloo Yadav-led RJD and the Congress for facilitating the JD(U)'s return to the NDA fold.