New Delhi: Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister in Patna on Thursday for a record tenth time in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) heavyweights.
Governor Arif Mohammad Khan also administered oath of office to 26 ministers of which 14 are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 8 from the Janata Dal (United) or JD (U), 2 from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP (RV), 1 each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM (S), and the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).
Nitish has retained most of his old team in the Cabinet, including those who face several charges of corruption and impropriety in the run up to the election. BJP’s Samrat Choudhury and Vijay Sinha are back as deputy chief ministers.
Two-thirds of the ministers are from Scheduled Castes (5), Other Backward Class (7) and Economically Backward Class (6), while 8 are from the general category. The oath-taking ceremony was attended by BJP national president J.P.Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and NDA chief ministers among others.
The NDA recorded a landslide victory in Bihar, winning 202 out of 243 seats. The BJP won 89 seats, the JD(U) 85, the LJP(RV) 19, the HAM(S) 5, and the RLM 4.
Choudhary, meanwhile, had courted controversy in the run-up to the polls. The BJP leader has been an MLA twice from the Parbatta constituency, which is part of Khagaria district. He came under fire after Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) leader Prashant Kishor made serious allegations of falsifying age and educational qualifications and linked him to the decades-old Shilpi-Gautam murder.
Kishor had also levelled charges against Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal, accusing him of murder and illegally taking over the management of a college. In July, he accused Jaiswal of unlawfully acquiring a medical college. Jaiswal, who took oath, had served as the revenue minister for a short period of time.
Former Union Minister and Lalu Yadav confidant Ram Kripal Yadav, who shifted to the BJP in 2014, was also inducted as minister in the Cabinet. He defeated the RJD candidate from Danapur.
The NDA, according to a senior BJP leader, focused on relying on experienced faces who were part of the previous government in Bihar. “The emphasis is on continuity and though fresh faces have also been given space, the government will be led by experienced faces.”
The ministers to be appointed included Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Vijendra Kumar Yadav, Shravan Kumar, Mangal Pandey, Dilip Kumar Jaiswal, Leshi Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Madan Sahni, Nitin Nabin, Ram Kripal Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Sunil Kumar, Mohd Zama Khan, Sanjay Singh Tiger, Arun Shankar Prasad, Surendra Mehta, Narayan Prasad, Rama Nishad, Lakhendra Kumar Roshan, Shreyashi Singh, Pramod Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Paswan, Sanjay Kumar Singh, and Deepak Prakash.
Olympic shooter and two-time MLA Shreyasi Singh, 34, was also named as a minister.
(Edited by Tony Rai)