Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth straight term today. Fourteen other ministers will be sworn in along with him. His new deputies - BJP's Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi - will be among those who will take oath today at the event that will be attended by Home Minister Amit Shah.
Mr Kumar, who heads the JD(U), was administered the oath of office at Raj Bhavan by Governor Phagu Chauhan, a day after he staked claim for the formation of a new government in the state, armed with unanimous support of all legislators of the NDA despite his partys plummeted tally.
The 69-year-old, who has had a continuous run since November, 2005, except for the period in 2014-15 when Jitan Ram Manjhi kept the chair warm for him, is on course to becoming the longest serving Chief Minister of the state, surpassing the record of Shrikrishna Singh who held the top post since before Independence till his death in 1961. Mr Kumar was first sworn in as CM in 2000, for a term that lasted barely a week as he failed to muster a majority and returned as a minister at the centre in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Nitish Kumar, after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake claim to form NDA government in Bihar, had on Sunday announced that the oath-taking, as well as the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, will be held at around 4.30 pm today.
The leaders of the NDA legislature party, which had secured a slim victory in the recently-concluded election in Bihar, had on Sunday met to deliberate on selecting a leader to lead the party. It had named Nitish Kumar as the leader of the NDA legislature party thus paving the way for his return as chief minister for the fourth consecutive term.
BJP's Tarkishore Prasad, the MLA from Bihar's Katihar, will replace Sushil Modi as his deputy.
The BJP had, from the beginning of the election campaign, had maintained that Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Ministerial candidate for the NDA government in the state.
The NDA won the state election last week with a wafer-thin majority and got 125 of Bihar's 243 assembly seats, three above the halfway mark. The NDA's campaign hinged largely on speeches by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who visited the state at least four times during the month-long poll campaign and was seen sharing stage with Nitish Kumar.
