Nitish takes oath as CM, Tejashwi is his deputy
The Janata Dal ( United)’ s Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took oath as Bihar chief minister of the Grand Alliance coalition while Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav was sworn in as his deputy at a brief ceremony held at Raj Bhawan in Patna, a day after Nitish’s party snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Soon after taking oath in the presence of the seven- party Grand Alliance, 32-year-old Tejashwi Yadav touched Kumar’s feet. Kumar, 71, responded by hugging Tejashwi. Speaking to reporters, Kumar told them to talk JD(U) legislators about BJP’s efforts made to break the party, which ultimately led to the JD(U) walking away from the alliance.
Kumar said he wanted the Opposition to unite for the 2024 general elections but underlined that he was not in the race to be the prime minister, a charge made by the BJP against the JD(U) leader for his decision to walk out of the NDA to join the opposition party RJD.
“Those who came to power in 2014, will they be victorious in 2024?... I would like all (Opposition) to be united for 2024… I am not a contender for any such post ( on PM post),” he told reporters after the ceremony that was also attended by family members of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, including former chief minister Rabri Devi and Tejashwi’s wife Rajshree Yadav.
“I will wholeheartedly strengthen the opposition… now
I have also joined the opposition,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, leaders of Bihar’s new coalition alliance said a second oath ceremony would be held after few days to induct other members of the Nitish Kumar-led council of ministers. The strength of the ministry would be around 35.
This is the eighth time Kumar has been sworn as Bihar chief minister; the first was in March 2000 when he was in power for a mere seven days after being invited to form the government after the state elections that threw up a hung assembly. But Nitish Kumar returned five years later as chief minister in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2005.
This is also the second time the JD(U) has broken its alliance with the BJP and joined hands with the RJD-led opposition — the first was in 2013 when the party exited after 17 years in the NDA.
But in 2017, in a sequence of events nearly as dramatic as Tuesday’s, Kumar ditched the so-called Grand Alliance and returned to the NDA. In the 2020 Assembly elections, the party was for the first time reduced to third position in the state, with the RJD becoming the largest and the BJP the second largest party.
On Tuesday, Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor Phagu Chauhan in the afternoon and by evening, returned to stake claim having ditched the BJP for a second time to realign with friend-turned-foeturned-friend Rashtriya Janata Dal. The developments came after months of subtle shifts in the JD(U) in its rhetoric towards the RJD-led opposition amid signs of rifts within the NDA.
Kumar handed over to the Governor the letter of support of 164 MLAs comprising of seven parties to the governor who invited him to form the government.
Leaders familiar with the development said RJD with 79 MLAs are likely to have 16 ministers, JD (U) with 45 MLAs will have 14 ministers as per the formula worked out by the new alliance partners.