Nitish Kumar to take oath as Bihar CM today

Patna: Senior JDU leader Nitish Kumar will be sworn-in as Chief Minister of Bihar for the fifth time today. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna at 2 PM. Besides Mr. Kumar governor Ramnath Kovind will administer the oath of office and secrecy to other council of ministers belonging to RJD, JD(U) and Congress parties.

Sources said, RJD president Lalu Prasad's sons, first time MLA Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, would be sworn in as cabinet ministers in new government. Younger son of Mr. Prasad, Tejaswi would be made deputy Chief Minister.

Around 33 ministers will take oath in the ceremony. Majority of ministerial berth will go to RJD as it has secured 80 assembly seats which is more than JD(U) and Congress. From RJD senior leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Srinarayan Yadav, Alok Kumar Mehta, Prof Chandrashekhar and Chandrika Rai could get cabinet berth.

font-size: 10pt;">In JD(U) Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Mewa Lal Chaudhary and MLC Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, are prominent leaders which may be inducted in Nitish Kumar cabinet. Among Congress leaders party’s state president and MLC Ashok Chaudhary and newly elected MLA Abdul Jalil Mastan are prominent names for ministerial berth.

Besides many political dignitaries, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and chief ministers of nine states mostly Congress ruled provinces will attend the programme. Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejrwal and Tarun Gogoi are prominent names among them. Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy would attend the swearing in ceremony as representatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tight security arrangements have been made at venue and in the state capital in view of the high profile event. Around five thousand security personnel have been deployed and CCTV cameras have been fixed for surveillance.