In a tactical move to retrieve lost ground, the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has resigned from the post of chief ministership on Saturday afternoon. His party, the JDU, has suffered a historic drubbing in the currently held parliamentary elections where it has managed to retain only 2 seats from the 20 which it had won in 2009.

Tendering his resignation to the state governor Dr D Y Patil, Nitish said his party had fought the general election under his stewardship so it is incumbent on him to take the moral responsibility and resign. However, he has not asked the governor to dissolve the house.

It should be recalled here that the state assembly election is merely 18 months away and technically he should have remained at the helm of the state administration till the expiry of his term.

According to political grapevines in Patna, the haste shown by Nitish to tender resignation comes from the perceived embarrassment in the eventuality of his government being dismissed by the new BJP-led NDA government in Delhi. JDU, once part of the saffron ally, had broken relation with it a few years ago on the issue of Narendra Modi’s projection as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

In a 243-member assembly in Bihar, Nitish was having 114 members – eight short of majority which was provided by the Congress (4) and 4 independents.