Patna: Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar’s chief minister for an unprecedented tenth term on Thursday, leading a new National Democratic Alliance government in a grand ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers from more than ten states.
Alongside Nitish Kumar, Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha took oath as ministers and are set to assume charge as deputy chief ministers in the new administration.
A large slate of NDA leaders also joined the cabinet, reflecting a broad power-sharing arrangement between the JD(U), BJP and allied parties. Those sworn in include senior JD(U) ministers Vijay Chaudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar, Ashok Chaudhary, Leshi Singh, Madan Sahni and Sunil Kumar.
From the BJP, Mangal Pandey, state president Dilip Jaiswal, Nitin Nabin, Ram Kripal Yadav, Sanjay Singh Tiger, Arun Shankar Prasad, Surendra Mehta, Narayan Prasad, Rama Nishad, Lakhendra Prashad Roushan, Shreyashi Singh, Pramod Kumar, Sanjay Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Singh were inducted.
Santosh Kumar Suman, son of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, also took oath as a minister. Dipak Prakash, son of Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Kushwaha also took oath as a minister.
The ceremony, held under tight security, drew an array of political leaders including the chief ministers of Haryana, Assam, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Delhi and Rajasthan, underscoring the NDA’s consolidated show of strength following its sweeping victory in the Bihar assembly elections.
