Janata Dal (United) JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will take oath as the chief minister (CM) of Bihar for the fourth straight term on Monday afternoon after closely-fought legislative assembly elections.
Nitish Kumar on Sunday had announced that the oath-taking and the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet will be held at around 4.30pm on Monday. Earlier, he was unanimously elected as NDA’s legislature party leader in a meeting held at his official residence in Patna. Union Minister Rajnath Singh, former Maharashtra CM and Bihar poll in-charge Devendra Fadnavis, along with other central leaders were present in the meeting when he was elected as the NDA legislature party leader.
One of the names being floated by a section in the BJP is that of four times MLA from Katihar, Tarkishore Prasad. Sources said that the party may also declare two deputy CMs for the first time in the state similar to the Uttar Pradesh model.
The opposition coalition, led by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and also comprising Congress and Left parties managed to bag 110 Assembly seats. The RJD gave a tough fight to the NDA and emerged as the single-largest party in the Assembly bagging 75 seats but Congress’ poor show led to the failure of the Grand Alliance to reach the magic mark.
Notably, this is the seventh time when Nitish Kumar will take an oath to become the CM of Bihar. He had served as the CM of the state for little over seven days in March 2000, after which he was elected in 2005 when he served a full term. He was re-elected to power in November 2010, after which he served for four years before resigning, and had again taken oath as CM in February 2015.
He was voted to power in 2015 Assembly Election as part of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’. However, after corruption allegations were levelled against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav in 2015, Nitish Kumar resigned only to be sworn in as CM merely 12 hours later joining hands with the BJP to form a government in the state.
