Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as prime minister for the fourth consecutive term today.
Patna / New Delhi:
Nitish Kumar will be sworn in for the fourth consecutive term as Chief Minister of Bihar this afternoon and 14 other ministers will be sworn in with him. Its new MPs, Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi of the BJP, will be among those taking the oath today at the event attended by Interior Minister Amit Shah. The NDA won the state elections last week with a very small majority and won 125 of the 243 seats in the Bihar assembly, three more than half.
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Nitish Kumar, who had faced opposition to the incumbent after three terms, was formally named the leader of the ruling alliance at a meeting of the MLA on Sunday in Bihar. The meeting was attended by BJP Senior Leader and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Party State Officer Bhupendra Yadav, Elections Officer Devendra Fadnavis, Trade Union Minister Nityanand Rai and State Party Head Sanjay Jaiswal, among others.
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The BJP’s performance in state elections has demoted Kumar’s Janata Dal United to second place in the alliance. While the JDU slipped from the 71 seats it won in 2015 to 43, the BJP gained an unprecedented 74 seats.
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Vijendra Yadav, Vijay Choudhary, Ashok Choudhary, Mewalal Choudhary and Sheela Mandal of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United and BJP leaders Mangal Pandey and Rampreet Paswan are among the 14 ministers joining Nitish Kumar’s new cabinet today. Santosh Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha or HAM, and Mukesh Mallah of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) will also take office.
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BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, Nitish Kumar’s senior deputy minister for much of his 15-year rule, has been replaced. He is likely to be sent to the center as Union Minister.
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On Sunday, Sushil Modi said that Prasad was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party in Bihar. “The BJP and the Sangh Parivar gave me so much in the political life of 40 years. I will fulfill the responsibility that will be given to me. No one can remove the position of the party worker,” he wrote on Twitter. He also congratulated Bettiah MLA Renu Devi on being elected as the deputy leader of the BJP legislative party.
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“After the ceremony, the cabinet will decide when the House will meet,” Nitish Kumar told reporters yesterday. “The people of Bihar have given this opportunity for further development … there should be no insufficiency,” Kumar added.
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RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav led the opposition Grand Alliance during a bitter election campaign and had attacked Nitish Kumar on various issues, such as handling the novel coronavirus pandemic and unemployment. The issues raised by the opposition are likely to take priority for the newly elected state government.
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The NDA campaign drew heavily on the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the state at least four times during the month-long election campaign and was seen sharing the stage with Nitish Kumar.
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Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janata Party, who fought in separate NDA elections this time, was seen by many as a “vote cutter” for Nitish Kumar’s party. While Paswan, after winning just one seat, said he wanted to strengthen the BJP’s position in the state, his criticism of the JDU chief apparently exposed the gap between the ruling coalition partners.
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Given that Kumar relies on the generosity of the BJP during his fourth consecutive term, there are questions about whether he would retain his absolute power over the government. Many feel that a portion of their decisions could be subject to BJP approval.
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