Ball now in Bihar guv's court

Manjhi recommends dissolution of Assembly

On a day when Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi recommended dissolution of the Assembly and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Legislature Party elected Nitish Kumar its new leader in place of Manjhi, all eyes are now on Raj Bhavan.

Governor Kesri Nath Tripathi, who is in Kolkata, is planning to visit Patna. Tripathi, the governor of West Bengal, holds the additional charge of Bihar, and will do so till a new incumbent is sworn in here.

Earlier in the day, a Raj Bhavan communiqué had said the governor had accepted Manjhi's recommendations in urging him to sack ministers P K Sahi and Lallan Singh from the Cabinet.
Constitutional experts argue that in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the 1994 case of S R Bommai vs Union of India, if a chief minister does not resign on his own, the only way to remove him is by defeating him on the floor of the House.

“Whether Manjhi enjoys the confidence of the House can be proved only in the Assembly, and not on the Raj Bhavan premises. The JD-U) Legislature Party can always elect a new leader. But that does not automatically facilitate Manjhi’s removal as the leader of the House. The matter will now reach the governor, who, in the light of the SC ruling in the Bommai case, may ask for a floor test,” constitutional lawyer Rakesh Prabhat told Deccan Herald.