Two days after he dramatically embraced the BJP, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday proved his majority in the Bihar assembly while the RJD protested in the house during the confidence vote.

Contrary to fears, no cross-voting took place during the show of strength. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar sailed through with 131 votes in his favour and 108 against. Soon after the assembly met, Nitish Kumar moved a resolution to seek a trust vote.

Apparently convinced that the JD-U-BJP government had adequate support to win the motion, RJD members protested in and out of the house. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) accused Nitish Kumar of insulting the mandate of 2015 by joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party and dumping his election allies the RJD and the Congress which made him the Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar said the 2015 mandate was for 'janta ki sewa' (serving people), not for anything else. "The mandate was for governance," he said in a short speech in the assembly. He said no one can lecture him on secularism. "I know and understand secularism."

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who was the Deputy Chief Minister, said voters had been stabbed in the back.