Patna:
The political drama of the break-up between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP is in Act Three. (
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Mr Kumar and his party, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), are meeting after a cabinet meet. They are expected to pass a resolution to end the alliance of 17 years. Sources say that JD(U) President Sharad Yadav will quit as Convenor of the National Democratic Alliance, the coalition that's anchored by the BJP with the JD(U) as its biggest partner.
Mr Kumar will meet Governor DY Patil after his party meeting where the Chief Minister will inform him about the party's decision to break the alliance with the BJP, say sources.
None of the BJP ministers attended today's cabinet meeting. "What is the point in us being there unless the Chief Minister clarifies his stand on the alliance?" asked Mangal Pandey, a senior leader of the BJP.
Mr Kumar's party is likely to claim that the BJP's absence proves that while it speaks of saving the partnership, its actions suggest differently.
That is a claim the JD(U) has also applied to the BJP's decision to place Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi in charge of its campaign for the national election. The JD(U) feels the appointment prefigures Mr Modi's selection as his party's prime ministerial candidate, which it has decreed unacceptable.
"The inevitability of Narendra Modi's ascent in the BJP is something we can't reconcile to," Shivanand Tiwari of the JD(U) told NDTV yesterday.
The BJP in Bihar says that the people of Bihar voted for the alliance, not the JD(U) alone, and Mr Kumar is, therefore, obliged to resign as chief minister and face an election.
To prove his majority in the state assembly, Mr Kumar needs 122 votes. The JDU has 118 state legislators.