Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM again in presence of JP Nadda

JDU chief Nitish Kumar returned as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time hours after he dumped the RJD earlier in the day and joined the BJP-led NDA. Kumar, who resigned as chief minister earlier in the day, took oath as the NDA CM in the presence of BJP National President JP Nadda, who flew down to Patna hours ago.

Also read: 'Nitish should apologise, betrayed the people of Bihar': Owaisi slams JDU chief as he returns to NDA

After snapping ties with RJD, Nitish has now formed the government with BJP and Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM. The JDU has 43 MLAs, while the BJP has 78, and Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM has 4.

Along with Nitish, BJP's state chief Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha took oath as deputy chief ministers.

Samrat Choudhary, who joined the BJP six years ago from RJD, took over as the state BJP chief in March 2023. He has also been the BJP leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council. In 2014, Samrat planned a split in the RJD by defecting 13 MLAs as a splinter group of the party. He later joined the BJP.

Vijay Sinha has been the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, from the Lakhisarai constituency since 2005. He has been the Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from November 25, 2020, to August 24, 2022. Sinha resigned from his post following a no-confidence motion moved against him by the ruling 'Mahagathbandhan'.

Besides the CM and two Deputy CMs, six more ministers took oath on Sunday. Among the leaders who took oath are Dr Prem Kumar (BJP), Vijendra Yadav (JDU), Vijay Chaudhary (JDU), Shravan Kumar (JDU), Santosh Suman (HAM), and Sumit Singh (Independent).

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav slammed Nitish for breaking the alliance and joining the BJP. He said the game was not over yet and the JDU would finish in 2024. "Khel abhi shuru huai, khel abhi baki hain. I can give you in writing that the JDU party will be finished in 2024. The public is with us."

(With inputs from Bijay Kumar)