Nitish Kumar to take oath as Bihar Chief Minister for 8th Time Today – All You Need to Know

Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as Bihar CM: Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the 8th time today at the Rajendra Mandapam inside Raj Bhavan. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will also take oath as the Deputy Chief Minister. Earlier on Tuesday, Nitish Kumar announced his resignation as the Bihar Chief Minister under JD(U) – BJP’s NDA coalition. With his resignation, Nitish ended the nearly three-year-old alliance with BJP. Later in the evening, Nitish reached out to Bihar Governor Phagu Chouhan to form a fresh government with support from RJD and other opposition parties. While laying the claim to form a new Government, Nitish Kumar submitted a letter to Bihar Governor with the support of 164 MLAs.

How did Nitish Manage to get Majority in Bihar Assembly?

One of the biggest challenges that Nitish had while navigating from the BJP-led NDA to Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) was to figure out the electoral mathematics. Currently, the effective strength of the Bihar Assembly stands at 242 members and any party or coalition that wants to form a government would need 122 MLAs for a majority.

Currently, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has the maximum number of seats i.e., 79 followed by BJP with 77 seats and JDU with 44. To form a fresh government, Nitish Kumar has joined hands with RJD by conceding the Deputy Chief Ministership to Tejashwi Yadav. He will also enjoy the support of Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) along with an independent MLA.

In addition to these major players, Congress also has 19 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly along withCPIML(L)’s 12 and CPI and CPI (M) with 2 each. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM also has a lone MLA in Bihar Assembly.   

Why did Nitish Kumar quit NDA and resign as Chief Minister?

Speaking to media persons after submitting his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister under NDA, Nitish Kumar said the decision to quit NDA and move away from the BJPwas based on the feedback he received from his party’s legislators. This is the second time that JD(U) has decided to part ways withthe BJP-led NDA in the last 9 years. “My party leaders were saying since long that enough is enough and we should come out of the BJP alliance and when talks were done with the RJD, we took the decision”, Kumar said on Tuesday. Reacting to Nitish’s powerplay in Bihar, BJP has said that it “disrespected the mandate given by the people of Bihar”.

Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister

JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar is the second longest serving Chief Minister of Bihar with this term extending up to 8 years and 117 Days from 24 November 2005 to 20 May 2014. Congress’s Shri Krishna Sinha holds the record for being the longest serving Bihar CM with his tenure extending up to 11 years and 5 days.