Nitish Kumar Takes Oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the fourth straight term in office. Fourteen other ministers will be sworn in along with him. His new deputies – BJP’s Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi – will be among those who will take oath today at the event that will be attended by Home Minister Amit Shah.
Mr. Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), was administered the oath of office at Raj Bhavan by Governor Phagu Chauhan, a day after he staked a claim for the formation of a new government in the state, armed with the unanimous support of all legislators of the NDA despite his party’s plummeted tally.
Nitish Kumar Takes Oath as Bihar Chief Minister
The 69-year-old, who has had a continuous run since November 2005, except for the period in 2014-15 when Jitan Ram Manjhi kept the chair warm for him, is on course to becoming the longest-serving Chief Minister of the state, surpassing the record of Shrikrishna Singh who held the top post since before Independence till his death in 1961.
Mr. Kumar was first sworn in as CM in 2000, for a term that lasted barely a week as he failed to muster a majority and returned as a minister at the center of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Nitish Kumar, after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake claim to form the NDA government in Bihar, had on Sunday announced that the oath-taking, as well as the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, will be held at around 4.30 pm today.