Nitish Kumar Takes Oath as Bihar CM for 10th Time; PM Modi Attends Ceremony in Patna

Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a record 10th time on Thursday, with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administering the oath at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Patna around 11 a.m. and flew straight to the venue by helicopter, marking the first time he has attended a swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar—despite Kumar having taken oath five times since Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. Over the years, Nitish has served under both the NDA and the Grand Alliance, but this is the first occasion the PM witnessed his oath-taking in person.

Nitish Kumar was administered the oath at 11:30 a.m. He first became Chief Minister in 2000, though that government lasted just seven days. Since returning to power in 2005, he has taken oath nine times in a row, achieving a historic tenth today.

Following Nitish Kumar, Samrat Choudhary—MLA from Tarapur—was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. Vijay Sinha also took oath as the second Deputy Chief Minister. Several ministers, including Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Mangal Pandey, Dilip Jaiswal, Shravan Kumar, and Bijendra Yadav, were also inducted into the cabinet.

After the ceremony, Prime Minister Modi congratulated all newly sworn-in ministers.

The event came after a day of high political activity on Wednesday. Nitish Kumar had visited Raj Bhavan at around 5 p.m. to submit his resignation and stake claim to form the new government, supported by 202 NDA MLAs. Governor Arif Mohammad Khan dissolved the 17th Bihar Legislative Assembly and invited him to form the new government.

Earlier, Nitish Kumar was unanimously elected leader of the JD(U) legislative party, while the BJP chose Samrat Choudhary as its legislative party leader and Vijay Sinha as deputy leader—both of whom have now taken charge as Deputy Chief Ministers, marking the beginning of the new NDA government in Bihar.

With inputs from IANS