Patna: Sealing his return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time hours after he resigned from the post to walk out of the Mahagathbandhan alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the INDIA bloc.
The leaders who took oath with Nitish Kumar include Samrat Chaudhary (BJP), Vijay Sinha (BJP), Prem Kumar (BJP), Bijendra Prasad Yadav (JDU), Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (JDU), Sharavan Kumar (JDU), Sumit Singh (Independent), and Santosh Suman (HAM).
Bihar unit BJP chief Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha were named Deputy Chief Ministers.
Soon after these three leaders took oath in Raj Bhavan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated them on ‘X’.
“I want to congratulate Nitish Kumar for becoming the chief minister, and Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha for becoming deputy chief ministers of Bihar,” PM Modi said.
“The NDA government formed in Bihar will leave no stone unturned for the development of the state and to fulfill the aspirations of its people. I am confident that this team will work in a dedicated manner for my family members of Bihar,” he added.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda was also present in the swearing-in ceremony.
The fresh development — BJP-JD-U alliance — came just ahead of the general elections, which, according to the political analysts, is expected to give the saffron party an edge in putting up a “strong performance” in the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
Bihar has a total of 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Shortly after tendering his resignation to the Governor on Sunday morning, Kumar met with BJP leaders and later staked a claim to form the government with the support of 128 MLAs.
Addressing the media after submitting his resignation to the Governor, Kumar said: “I have resigned as the Chief Minister and given a letter to the Governor to dissolve government. There were suggestions from all leaders that I should resign. I had issues and that’s why I resigned. I had left the previous alliance and made a new one but I saw that the situation here was not good. So, the suggestion (to step down) was coming from all sides.”
