JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar was on Wednesday sworn in as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, a day after he severed ties with the BJP-led NDA and joined hands with the RJD to form the Mahagath bandhan’ government. Kumar was sworn in alongside RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is likely to be named as his deputy. The announcement is likely to be made this evening and he will be named as the Deputy Chief Minister.
Other cabinet ministers will be sworn in later once the three main alliance partners JD(U), RJD and Congress decide on the number of berths and legislators who will become ministers. Kumar is likely to retain the important Home portfolio, while the RJD may win most of the wards that were earlier in the BJP, a highly placed source said. He said an agreement in principle had been reached on the composition of the new cabinet, which is likely to have 35 or more members drawn from Kumar’s JD(U), RJD and the Congress.
Euphoric scenes were witnessed outside the Raj Bhavan and residences of Kumar and Yadav as hundreds of JD(U) and RJD supporters celebrated by beating drums, bursting crackers and distributing ‘laddus’ (sweets). Speaking to reporters shortly after Governor Phagu Chauhan was sworn in, Kumar denied the BJP’s claim that the new government would not last a full term and said his former ally “will be back to where they were after the 2015 elections”. when the NDA could win less than 50 seats in the 243-member assembly.
Meanwhile, leaders of the BJP, which is the second largest party in the assembly with 77 MLAs, were conspicuous by their absence at the oath-taking ceremony. We have not received any invitation. In any case, we would hate to see the formation of a government that was installed after betraying the people of Bihar who voted for the NDA in the last elections and is an insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who kept his promise of support Kumar for another term, despite JD(U)’s poor performance, BJP leader Sushil Modi told a press conference.
“Nitish Kumar has a habit of getting rid of allies. He will also not be loyal to RJD and will try to break this party using Lalu Prasad’s ill health… JD is accusing us of betraying our allies.” (U) who gives the example of Shiva Sena. The Shiv Sena disintegrated. And we were not his allies then,” he said. Returning to the billing as a potential secular alternative to Narendra Modi that a disparate opposition could field, Kumar said he has no daawedari” (claims) when asked about his prime ministerial ambitions, but quipped that they should remember that the year 2014 is in the past. He has to worry. (chinta karni chahiye’) around 2024.
Sushil Modi also claimed that Tejashwi Yadav as the leader of the numerically larger party will try to act as de facto CM.He will also be under pressure to fulfill the promise of 10 crore government jobs he made to the people of the state. This will unsettle Nitish and internal divisions will cause the government to collapse before 2025, the former deputy CM said. However, Kumar claimed that the new government would perform well and fulfill all the promises made to the people of Bihar.
They (BJP) fear that they may go back to the same level they were in 2015, the chief minister said, referring to the rallies JD(U), RJD and Congress fought in which the BJP-led NDA was defeated. Later, the Rajya Sabha member also claimed that Kumar wanted to become the Vice President and left the BJP after the party failed to accommodate his ambitions.
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