Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM

JDU President Nitish Kumar sworn-in as Chief Minister of Bihar and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as Deputy Chief Minister at 10 this morning in Patna. He resigned from the post yesterday evening citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

After submitting his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Nitish Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhawan that it has become difficult to run the Grand Alliance government in Bihar in the prevailing circumstances.Hours later, JDU President joined hands with BJP to form a new government in the state. Nitish Kumar was elected leader of the NDA during a meeting of NDA and JD(U) MLAs at his residence in Patna.

After meeting, Mr Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, drove to Raj Bhawan to stake claim to form a new government. Mr Modi later told journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting Nitish Kumar was submitted to the governor who has invited Mr Kumar to form a new government.



These include 71 MLAs from JD(U), 53 from BJP, 2 each from RLSP and LJP, one from HAM and three independents. With the support of 132 MLAs, the NDA enjoys a comfortable majority in 243-member Bihar Assembly where 122 MLAs are requited to prove majority. Governor has given Nitish Kumar two days to prove majority on the floor of the assembly.

RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav met Governor early this morning to register protest over Nitish being invited to form government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly. He appealed Governor to cancel the oath taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar and invite his party to form a new government. However, the governor said that it is not possible to take back the invitation letter from Nitish. Tejashvi Yadav said that he will challenge the governor's decision in court.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and 3 CPI-ML legislators decide to back Tejashvi their number will add up to 110 only, which is way behind the magic figure of 122.