Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar was on Monday sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister by Governor Phagu Chauhan at the Raj Bhavan in Patna on Monday.
Along with him, 14 Ministers from all the four NDA constituent parties took oath.
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Two four-time BJP legislators, Tarkishore Prasad from the Katihar constituency and Renu Devi from Bettiah, who were sworn-in, were tipped to be Deputy Chief Ministers. Five Ministers from the BJP who took the oath were Amarendra Pratap Singh, Ram Surat Rai, Rampreet Paswan, Mangal Pandey and Jivesh Kumar Mishra. Party sources told The Hindu that senior State BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav, who was the Road Construction Minister in the previous NDA government, was tipped to be the Assembly Speaker.
From the JD(U), Vijay Choudhury, Ashok Choudhury, Mewalal Choudhury, Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Sheela Kumari took oath as Ministers. Ms. Kumari had won the polls for the first time from the Phulparas constituency in Madhubani district and Mr. Mewalal Choudhury, former Vice-Chancellor of Sabour Agricultural University, was elected from the Tarapur constituency in Munger for the second time. Mr. Vijay Choudhury was the Speaker in the previous NDA government.
Mukesh Sahni from the Vikassheel Insaan Party and Santosh Kumar Suman from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) also took oath. Mr. Suman is the son of party chief and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Chirag Paswan greets Nitish
Congratulating Mr. Kumar on being elected Chief Minister again, Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan tweeted that he “hoped the government would complete its full term and you would remain NDA’s chief minister”.
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The LJP had put up candidates against the JD(U) in the recent Assembly polls and caused huge damage to the tally of winning seats for the party. Mr. Paswan had said that he had fielded candidates against the JD(U) to “dethrone” Mr. Kumar as Chief Minister. The JD(U) could win only 43 seats, while the BJP bagged 74 seats.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, saying, “the mandate was against the NDA”.
“RJD boycotts the swearing-in ceremony. The mandate for change was against NDA and the mandate has been converted into government order. Ask the unemployed youth, farmers, contract workers, teachers of Bihar what they are going through. People are upset with the fraud committed by NDA. We’re people’s representatives and we stand with people”, tweeted RJD, the single largest party with 75 seats in the 243-seat Assembly.
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State Congress president Madan Mohan Jha said the “party would not attend the function as the alliance partner RJD has boycotted it and we believe that the mandate was against the NDA”.
Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda, party’s State in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and other leaders attended the swearing-in function held at the Raj Bhavan.
