As widely expected, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday sailed through the crucial floor test in the Bihar Assembly with a convincing margin of 131 votes. Nitish kick-started his fresh stint by launching a full-scale attack on the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD’s) first family, calling their secularism “a mask for corruption”.
Four members of the 243-member Assembly couldn’t vote, reducing the total strength of the House to 239. The new NDA government needed 120 votes to win the vote. The 131 votes in favour of Nitish comprised the Janata Dal (United)’s 70, BJP’s 52, LJP’s two, RLSP’s two, HAM’s one and four Independent MLAs. On the other hand, 108 MLAs — 79 from RJD, 26 from Congress and three CPI (ML) lawmakers — voted against the motion.