Patna: Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar is set to be sworn-in as chief minister of Bihar for a record 10th time at the historic Gandhi Maidan in state capital on Thursday amid presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and a number of senior leaders.
Several union ministers and chief ministers of NDA ruled states are among others likely to attend the event.
It will be for the first time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present at the swearing-in ceremony of the NDA government in Bihar. While wrapping up his campaign for recently concluded state assembly elections, PM Modi had said that he would return to Bihar to attend the oath taking ceremony.
Earlier in the day, Nitish visited Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan as head of outgoing government and stake claim to form a new government.
Accompanied by NDA leaders, Nitish also submitted letters of support of elected MLAs of the coalition, who earlier unanimously elected him as leader of NDA.
On Monday, the state cabinet had recommended for the dissolution of the current assembly on November 19 as Nitish also duly informed the governor about it.
After staking his claim to form the new government, Nitish said, “I attended the NDA meeting held in the Central Hall of the Bihar legislature.” Sources said that 22 ministers are expected to take oath with Nitish Kumar as chief minister and Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha as his deputies.
“The list of ministers to be sworn in on Thursday is ready. Most of them are those who served as ministers in the outgoing NDA government. However, a few new faces will be inducted in the cabinet later,” said a senior BJP leader.
The 22 legislators to be sworn in as ministers will likely include nine MLAs from BJP. Eight of the nine MLAs are outgoing ministers. JD (U) is expected to take the lion’s share of ministerial berths this time, with 10 MLAs, eight of whom were members of the outgoing government, sources said.
One each from Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha is to take oath as ministers along with Nitish.
“Nitish Kumar’s name will be recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records after he takes oath for the 10th time tomorrow,” BJP MLA and former minister Neeraj Babloo said after coming out of the NDA legislature party meeting.
BJP led NDA recorded a landslide victory in Bihar elections, winning 202 seats in the 243-member state assembly. On the other hand, opposition Mahagathbandhan finished with just 35 seats.
