Ending a week-long period of speculation, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar did another political somersault on Sunday, this time securing the backing of the BJP and re-appointing himself as Chief Minister by taking the oath for a record ninth time to lead the Bihar Government.
Eighteen months ago, Nitish had parted ways with the BJP, despite winning the 2020 Assembly elections as part of the NDA coalition.
He joined the RJD-Congress coalition in August 2022, leading the Government with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy.
After Nitish’s coronation, Tejashwi said it marked the end of Nitish style of politics and the demise of JD(U) in Bihar.
Governor Rajendra Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Raj Bhavan in Patna, with BJP president JP Nadda in attendance, after a well-orchestrated change of regime over 72 hours in the crucial State that holds 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the newly sworn-in NDA Government in Bihar, led by Nitish, will spare no effort for the State’s development. Alongside Nitish, BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha, State BJP chief Samrat Choudhary took oath as Deputy CMs, and BJP’s Prem Kumar took oath as a Minister.
JD(U) members Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Vijendra Yadav, and Shrawan Kumar also took oath, along with former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustan Awam Morcha’s Santosh Kumar Suman and Independent legislator Sumit Singh.
Other members of the council of Ministers will be decided in a day or two, sources said.
Referring to his party’s alliance with the NDA, Nitish said, “We will stay together. Eight leaders took oath as Ministers today, and the rest will be inducted soon.”
Responding to Tejashwi’s statement, “JDU will be finished in 2024,” Nitish said, “We work for the development and progress of Bihar. We will keep doing the same, nothing else. Tejashwi was not doing anything. Now I am back where I was before (in the NDA), and now there is no question of going anywhere.”
Earlier in the day, Nitish resigned as the Chief Minister, citing issues in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and the Opposition Bloc INDIA. He then staked claim to form a new Government with the BJP.
Kumar’s former ‘Mahagathbandhan’ ally RJD boycotted the event, while another former ally Congress remained absent.
Nitish first took oath as the State’s Chief Minister in 2000, but his Government fell within a week.
In May 2014, he stepped down but returned eight months later, elbowing out his then protégé Jitan Ram Manjhi, as CM in November 2015 when the JD(U), RJD, and Congress won the Assembly elections.
In 2017, he resigned, only to form a new Government with the BJP. He returned as the CM after the 2020 Assembly polls, which the NDA won, but the JD(U) performed poorly, with the blame placed on Chirag Paswan-led Lok Jan Shakti, who is now a natural member of the NDA coalition.
The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members, with the RJD as the largest single party (79 MLAs), followed by the BJP at 78, JD(U) at 45, the Congress 19, the HAM 4, and the rest in single digits.
Talking to the media after the oath ceremony, Nadda said, “It is on record that whenever NDA forms the Government in Bihar, stability and development take a quantum leap. Under the leadership of Modi, NDA will sweep the Lok Sabha election and will again form the Government in Bihar in the next Assembly.”
With this latest change of guard, Nitish is seen as a weak political leader in Bihar, given the double number of BJP MLAs compared to the JD(U). Nitish has returned to the BJP fold, claiming that he felt restless in the Opposition alliance INDIA, which he initiated last June, anticipating that the bloc would name him the Prime Ministerial candidate.
This did not materialise, leading him to overhaul his party by appointing himself as JD(U) chief and accusing his close confidant Lallan Singh of playing to the tunes of Congress and RJD’s supremo Lalu Prasad.
An old video of Nitish’s remarks on the BJP resurfaced on Sunday when he had uttered, ‘Mar jana qubool hai, unke (BJP) saath jana humko kabhi qubool nahi hai, ye acchi tarah samajh lijiye.’ (Dying is acceptable, going with them is never acceptable to us, understand this).”
