PATNA: Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar on Sunday took oath as chief minister of the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar in the presence of BJP national president J P Nadda and other dignitaries. This is a record ninth term that Nitish was administered oath as CM of the state.
Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders—Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha---were among eight other legislators administered oath of office by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar at Rajbhawan at 5 pm. Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha will be deputy chief ministers.
Apart from Nitish, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Shravan Kumar, Vijendra Prasad Yadav, all from JD(U), Samrat Choudhary, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Prem Kumar, all from BJP, Santosh Kumar of Hindustani Awam Morcha and Sumit Kumar Singh (Independent) took oath as cabinet ministers.
The new cabinet ministers will be allotted portfolios later.
Earlier, Nitish met the Governor and staked a claim to form a new government with BJP and its allies. Nitish also submitted letters of support of 128 MLAs. They include JD(U)’s 45 MLAs, BJP’s 78, HAM’s four MLAs and one Independent MLA.
Before that BJP held a meeting with party MLAs and MLCs soon after Nitish’s resignation as chief minister of Grand Alliance government. Later, BJP leaders reached the chief minister’s residence and offered their party’s letter of support of MLAs.
BJP Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde said that a proposal was moved to support JD(U) and form a new government. He said the proposal was accepted by all MLAs. After tendering his resignation to the governor, Nitish told newspersons that he resigned from his CM post as the grand alliance government was not functioning well.
Nitish told media persons, “I have resigned from my post as the government that was in place now come to an end.”
“I took the decision after eliciting opinions from party leaders and getting feedback from all corners. I made the decision by listening to everyone. There were problems in running the government,” he remarked.
RJD was making only claims and trying to take credit when it was not working for the development of the state. To a media query, he said, “I have left the opposition INDIA alliance”.
He said that the grand alliance government was formed nearly one and half years ago but the situation started worsening gradually.
Later Prime Minister congratulated Nitish for being nominated as chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth term.