RJD to meet Bihar governor on Friday, stake claim to form govt

The leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav said that being the single largest party, the RJD has the constitutional right to be invited to form the government just as the BJP had the privilege in Karnataka.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress said on Thursday they will meet Bihar governor Satyapal Malik on Friday to stake claim to form the government as it was the single largest party in the state after the Karnataka governor’s decision to invite the Bharatiya Janata Party’s BS Yeddyurappa to be sworn in as the chief minister. (Live Updates)

The former deputy chief minister of the state said the oath-taking ceremony of Yeddyurappa was a black day for democracy.(Parwaz Khan / HT Photo)

“I along with RJD and Congress legislators would meet the governor at 1pm on Friday and stake claim to form the government in Bihar. If Yeddyurappa has got a chance to form the government in Karnataka, why should the RJD be deprived? Why are there two yardsticks for the formation of government in Bihar and Karnataka?” Yadav asked while speaking to reporters.

The former deputy chief minister of the state said the oath-taking ceremony of Yeddyurappa was a black day for democracy.

The RJD fought the elections in alliance with Janata Dal (United) or JD (U) and the Congress, emerging as the single largest party. In July 2017, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar broke the alliance and tied up with the BJP to continue as chief minister.

Yadav said the BJP carried out a coup in Bihar last year to dislodge the grand alliance government and the governor wrongfully invited the BJP-JD(U) combine to form the government ignoring the claims of the RJD despite its status as a single largest party.

“We had sat on dharna till 2am on July 26 last year outside the Raj Bhawan waiting for the governor to invite us as we were the single largest party” he said.

“ ... The same thing has been repeated in Karnataka this time. The BJP is using all unconstitutional methods to form the government by throttling democracy and misusing agencies be it the CBI, ED or income tax to intimidate rivals,” he added.

The leader of the opposition said the situation in the country was worse than emergency days in mid-seventies and that all opposition forces should now unite to fight against the BJP’s arm-twisting methods to usurp power.

“All opposition parties should stage a dharna in Bangalore against the unconstitutional method adopted to allow the BJP to form the government in Karnataka,” he said, adding that the Karnataka governor’s decision to give the BJP 15 days time to prove majority would only lead to horse trading.

RJD’s senior leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh also said the Karnataka governor’s decision to invite BJP to form the government was a mockery of democracy.

“The Karnataka governor has thrown the constitutional norms to the winds. If the BJP being the single largest party got an invite to form the government in Karnataka, why should not the RJD get a chance in Bihar where it is the single largest party,” Singh said.

The Congress also said it will ask the governor in Goa to invite it to form governments in the state and that it had the “strength”, speaking after the BJP came to power in Karnataka despite not having the majority in the assembly.

The Congress won 17 seats in the 40-member Goa assembly and emerged as the largest party in Goa elections in March 2017, falling short of the majority figure by four seats.

The BJP, which got 14 seats, formed the government in alliance with the Goa Forward Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which had won three seats each. Three Independent MLAs supported the BJP too.

Chandrakant Kavlekar, chief of Congress legislature party in Goa, said governor Mridula Sinha should follow the precedent set by her Karnataka counterpart and invite the single largest party to form the government and “correct her mistake of March 12, 2017”.

The Congress will give Sinha a letter containing signatures of 16 party MLAs, reported news agency PTI.