Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) president Nitish Kumar will take oath as CM for the 10th time on November 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several members of the Union cabinet, chief ministers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-ruled states, MPs, and top leaders of allied parties are expected to attend the swearing-in function.
The alliance won 202 seats in comparison to 35 by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the recently concluded elections to the 243-member House. Nitish first came to power in 2005 and has held the post continuously since then, except for a brief interregnum in 2014-15, when he had anointed Jitan Ram Manjhi as the chief minister after JDU fared poorly in the then Lok Sabha polls.
The Patna district administration has started preparations at the 62-acre sprawling venue located close to the Ganga to ensure smooth conduct of the ceremony, arrival and departure of dignitaries, and accommodating the guests at the function.
“The Gandhi Maidan will be closed for four days from November 17 to 20. There will be a complete ban on the entry of common people during this period,” Patna district public relations officer (PRO) Lokesh Kumar Jha said. Nitish will chair the last meeting of the outgoing cabinet on Monday and will then submit his resignation to Bihar governor Arif Mohammad Khan. He is expected to be asked to continue as the caretaker chief minister.
Meanwhile, hectic parleys between the five NDA partners – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), JDU, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM(S), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) – that went to the polls together, are going on from Patna to Delhi, in an attempt to devise a formula for the sharing of berths in the new state cabinet.
The BJP has emerged as the largest party by winning 89 seats. The JDU won 85, Union minister Chirag Paswan’s LJP(R) 19, Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM(S) bagged five, while Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha’s RLM got four seats.
Leaders of all five parties have paid courtesy visits to meet Nitish at his official residence at 1, Aney Marg, and have also held meetings to discuss the formation of the new government. Sources revealed that attempts are being on to provide representation to every ally in the new cabinet.
Bihar, with its 243-member Legislative Assembly, can have a maximum of 36 ministers as per the constitutional provisions that limit the size of the cabinet to 15 per cent of the Assembly’s size. In the outgoing cabinet, the BJP has 21 cabinet ministers while the JDU has 13, including Nitish.
HAM(S) has one minister, while an Independent MLA, Sumit Kumar Singh, is also a minister. However, the chief minister, deputy chief ministers, and only a few ministers are expected to take the oath at the November 20 ceremony, leaving further expansion of the cabinet at a later date.
