Nitish took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the record ninth time
Patna/Sources: Janata Dal United (JDU) President Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the record ninth time on Sunday. Governor Rajendra Arlekar administered him the oath of office and secrecy at the Raj Bhavan in the capital Patna.
Along with Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha, Samrat Chaudhary and Prem Kumar also took oath as ministers. Along with JD(U) leaders Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Vijendra Yadav and Shravan Kumar, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustan Awam Morcha’s Santosh Kumar Suman and independent MLA Sumit Singh also took oath as ministers.
Sources said that the decision on other members of the Council of Ministers will be taken in a day or two. Kumar had resigned as chief minister earlier in the day, saying “things are not going well” for him in the ruling grand alliance in Bihar and the opposition ‘India’ alliance.
Along with this, he had also staked claim to form a new government with the help of BJP. About one and a half years ago he broke ties with BJP. BJP national president Jai Prakash Nadda and other senior party leaders also attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Kumar’s former ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, while another former ally Congress also remained absent. The JD(U) supremo was sworn in as the state chief minister for the first time in 2000, but her government fell within a week.
He resigned from the post of Chief Minister in May 2014, but returned as Chief Minister in November 2015 after removing Jitan Ram Manjhi just eight months later. At that time, the JD(U), RJD and Congress alliance had won the assembly elections.
He resigned in 2017 to form a new government with the BJP. He again became the Chief Minister in the 2020 assembly elections. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won this election, while the JDU had performed poorly. The number of members in Bihar Assembly is 243.
