Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar chief minister for record ninth time

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Kumar first took oath as the state’s chief minister in 2000, when his government fell within a week. He was back as CM in 2005, and returned to power five years later

JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Sunday took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth time.

He was administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan here.

Along with Kumar, BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary took oath as ministers in the Kumar-led government.

An experienced upper-caste BJP leader, Vijay Kumar Sinha has held posts as varied as the Bihar Assembly Speaker, a cabinet minister and Leader of the Opposition.

Sinha, 64, was elected the deputy leader of the BJP legislature party on Sunday, and with this elevation, he is likely to become one of the two deputy CMs in the new NDA government, led by Nitish Kumar.

An OBC leader of the BJP in Bihar where the party wants to transcend its “pro-upper caste” image, Samrat Choudhary has had a meteoric rise since he joined the outfit nearly seven years ago.

Choudhary was elected the leader of the BJP legislature party on Sunday, and with this elevation, he is likely to become one of the two deputy CMs in the new NDA government, led by Nitish Kumar.

Nitish Kumar had earlier in the day resigned as the chief minister, saying “things were not working well” for him in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and in the opposition bloc INDIA, and staked claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.

The CPI(ML) Liberation, which supported the Mahagathbandhan government from outside, launched a blistering attack on Kumar, accusing him of “betrayal”. In an acerbic Facebook post, the party’s general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya alleged that Kumar, “who has had the longest stint as CM”, will be used by the RSS-BJP combine “as its pawn”.

Political strategist turned politician Prashant Kishor also took a swipe at Kumar but added that the BJP might end up paying “a huge price” for supporting the JD(U) chief who had ditched it in August, 2020.

Kumar had joined the Mahagathbandhan in August 2022, when he had snapped ties with the BJP accusing it of trying to “split” his JD(U). He formed a new government with a multi-party coalition that included RJD, Congress and three Left parties.

Kumar first took oath as the state’s chief minister in 2000, when his government fell within a week. He was back as CM in 2005, and returned to power five years later.

In May, 2014, he stepped down but returned eight months later, elbowing out his then protégé Jitan Ram Manjhi and was back as CM in November, 2015, when the coalition of JD(U), RJD and Congress won the assembly elections.

First Published: Jan 28 2024 | 5:27 PM IST

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