Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday and staked claim before governor Arif Mohammad Khan to form the government after being unanimously elected as the leader of the NDA legislative party in Bihar.
Nitish is set to take oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the tenth time at a grand ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Thursday, which will also serve as a show of strength for the BJP-led ruling dispensation.
The NDA partners have agreed on a formula of one minister per six MLAs. Accordingly, 15 ministers from the BJP and 14 from the JDU are likely to take oath along with chief minister Nitish. The LJP(RV), the third largest party with 19 members, will get three ministerial berths, while the Hindustan Awam Morcha and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha one each.
The LJP(RV) had demanded a deputy chief minister’s post but the BJP-JDU leadership jointly shot it down, sources said.
Earlier in the day, the formality of electing Nitish as the leader of the JDU legislative party was completed at the chief minister’s residence.
The BJP legislative party elected Samrat Choudhary as its leader and Vijay Sinha as deputy leader, maintaining continuity in the combination of an OBC and an upper-caste representative.
Choudhary and Sinha, who served as deputy chief ministers in the outgoing government, are set to return in the same role in the new Nitish-led administration. Choudhary, an OBC Koiri caste leader, is being promoted by the BJP’s central leadership as their main face in Bihar. Sinha, the other deputy chief minister, continues to play a key role in consolidating the party’s loyal upper caste support base.
Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a host of Union ministers and chief ministers from the BJP- and NDA-ruled states are slated to attend the swearing-in.
The NDA legislative meeting to elect Nitish as leader was held in the Central Hall of the Assembly. Top leaders of the Bihar NDA partners congratulated Nitish on his unanimous election and drove to the Raj Bhavan to stake claim for government formation.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who micro-managed the Assembly elections as the BJP in-charge, emphasised Modi’s influence on Bihar’s political landscape. Pradhan thanked the people of Bihar for their faith in Modi and told the newly elected MLAs that the Prime Minister remained committed to the state’s development.
LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan, who has emerged as a significant force in this election, said the new government would fulfil the dream his late father Ram Vilas Paswan had envisioned for the state.
Praising Nitish, HAMS chief Jitan Ram Manjhi said at the meeting: “Today, there is hardly a leader who is not affected by anti-incumbency. Nitish Kumar’s popularityremains high despite 20 years in power.”
Another NDA partner, RLM leader Upendra Kushwaha, thanked the women voters for their support to the NDA and said the voters of Bihar had blessed the Modi-Nitish leadership.