Bihar: Nitish Kumar swears in as CM for 8th time; Tejashwi Yadav to be Dy CM

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Patna, Aug 10: Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for eighth time, after he returned to the Mahagathbandhan comprising of the RJD, Congress and other opposition parties. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took oath too, as the deputy chief minister, in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.

Besides JD(U) and RJD, the Congress is expected to be represented in the new cabinet. Left parties CPIML(L), CPI and CPI(M) have expressed their intention to support the new government from outside.

Kumar had on Tuesday quit the BJP, stripping the party of power, before resigning and staking claim to form a new government, armed with the support of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance).

The 71-year-old JD(U) leader first took oath as chief minister in 2000, when he headed an NDA government that lasted only a week. He was back in 2005, this time with his coalition having won an absolute majority in the assembly polls.

Bihar Cabinet formation: Nitish Kumar to retain home, RJD to get Speaker’s post

The NDA won a landslide victory under his leadership in the assembly polls five years later. Kumar stepped down in 2014, owning moral responsibility for the drubbing of JD(U) in the Lok Sabha polls, but returned less than a year later when he was sworn in for the fourth time.

In 2015, Kumar was back as CM, with the Grand Alliance then comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress winning a comfortable majority. He resigned in July 2017, citing irreconcilable differences with the RJD, and got sworn in again less than 24 hours later, when he formed a new government with the BJP.

Kumar was sworn in for the seventh time in November 2020, when the NDA retained power, though his own party saw a major fall in its tally for which it blamed a “conspiracy” by the BJP.