Finance
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar’s Chief Minister on Thursday, with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan delivering the oath of office and secrecy in Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed at Patna Airport about 11 a.m. and flew directly to the venue via helicopter.
Nitish Kumar took his oath as Chief Minister for the tenth time at 11.30 a.m.
He originally became Chief Minister in 2000, but his government lasted barely seven days. Since his return to power in 2005, he has been sworn in nine times in a row, with a remarkable tenth oath taking place today.
This is also the first time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attended Nitish Kumar’s swearing-in event, despite Kumar having taken the oath five times since Modi took office in 2014. Throughout this time, he has worked for both the NDA and the Grand Alliance. Today is the first time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken his oath in Patna.
Samrat Choudhary was sworn in immediately following Nitish Kumar. He was elected MLA from Tarapur and presently serves as one of Bihar’s Deputy Chief Ministers.
Vijay Sinha was the next person sworn in, and he now serves as Deputy Chief Minister.
In addition to Nitish Kumar, several ministers were sworn in, including Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Mangal Pandey, Dilip Jaiswal, Shravan Kumar, and Bijendra Yadav.
The Prime Minister congratulated the freshly sworn-in ministers following the ceremony.
The oath-taking came after a day of intensive political action on Wednesday. Around 5 p.m., Nitish Kumar went to Raj Bhavan to submit his claim to form the next government. He submitted letters of support from 202 NDA MLAs and resigned as outgoing Chief Minister.
Governor Arif Mohammad Khan then dissolved the 17th Bihar Legislative Assembly, inviting him to form a new administration.
Previously, Nitish Kumar was elected head of the JD(U) legislative party, while the BJP elected Samrat Choudhary as legislative party leader and Vijay Sinha as deputy leader.
Both leaders were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers, signaling the start of the new NDA government in Bihar.
Source: IANS
