A week after he resumed charge as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar today addressed more than one lakh party workers at Patna's Gandhi Maidan, and had a single message for them - "Apologise to the people of Bihar".
"I apologise to the people of Bihar, and to all of you again, for resigning as the Chief Minister and installing Mr (Jitan Ram) Manjhi. I will never repeat such a mistake," said Mr Kumar. "It is your job as party workers to ensure my apology reaches every person in Bihar," he added.
He made the statement referring to the weeks of political crisis in Bihar, events that took place in the last few weeks, when the then Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had refused to step down from office on instruction from his party. After weeks of posturing, Mr Manjhi had resigned just hours before he was to face a floor test in the Bihar Assembly.
The BJP, a one-time ally of Mr Kumar, was the main target of the Chief Minister's speech, which went on for over an hour.
"A government has been formed in Jammu and Kashmir, and I congratulate Mufti Sahab. He used to be an old ally. It took them 50 days to stitch together an alliance. But look at the BJP. They say something else, do something else," said Mr Kumar.
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