RJD leader and Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Yadav will also be sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
Patna: A day after ditching BJP and joining hands with RJD, Nitish Kumar is all set to take oath as the Bihar Chief Minister, for the eighth time, and this time under the Mahagathbandhan banner, on Wednesday at 2 pm. The alliance, Nitish revealed on Tuesday, will have seven parties and one Independent MLA.
RJD leader and Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Yadav will also be sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister.
On Tuesday, leaders of Janata Dal United had hinted at a major development and there was no need of guessing that they are pointing at a split. Moments later Nitish Kumar reached Governor Phagu Chauhan’s residence and resigned from the post of Chief Minister.
He then spoke to the media and within an hour returned to meet Chauhan once again, this time along with Tejashwi Yadav, to inform the governor that the Mahagathbandhan is all set to form the next government.
On the oath-taking, RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha on Wednesday said, “It’s not only a government that will take oath, it is a ‘ghar wapasi’ of the 2017-2020 mandate. It’s very important, especially in an era where BJP has decided to mangle democratic values, that only they would remain. Bihar gave a message. It’s an oath of people of Bihar.”
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Later, replying to questions from the media, Tejashwi agreed that his party had attacked JDU and Nitish Kumar innumerable times but things have changed and they are looking at the progress of Bihar now.
Although Janata Dal United has fewer seats than the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Kumar reportedly asked to be named the Chief Minister, an understanding, sources said, already discussed before the initiation of Mahagathbandhan 2.0.
The BJP has accused Nitish Kumar of “betraying the mandate of the people” by dumping a partner mid-term. However, this is not time Nitish Kumar has ditched an ally mid-term. Earlier, his party had broken the alliance with JDU and joined hands with BJP barely two years after winning the state election under the Mahagathbandhan banner.
Nitish’s move to dump the BJP came amid an ongoing rift between JDU and BJP, with leaders of both the parties openly criticising each other on public forums. In fact, some time back, Nitish Kumar had said that although the Centre had refused to conduct a caste census, in Bihar, the counting of castes would take place. Tejashwi Yadav had backed the Chief Minister fully on this.
