Nitish Kumar along with his Ministers will be sworn in on November 20 at the sprawling Gandhi Maidan here. The date was finalised on Tuesday after marathon meeting Nitish held with senior leaders of JD(U) and following the nod from RJD boss lalu Prasad.
“Nitish and lalu will get enough time to finalise the list of their candidates to be made Ministers,” said a senior Cabinet colleague of the CM. The administration will also get appropriate time for the swearing in arrangements after the passage of Diwali and Chhath. In Bihar Chhath is the most revered and popular festival which comes six days after Diwali.
The Friday swearing in ceremony is likely to be a big affair with the possibility of the participation of AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, or one of them, Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Delhi Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal respectively, former PM H D Deve Gowda and many more top politicians of Congress and other regional parties. UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and Assam CM Tarun Gogoi are also expected to attend the ceremony.
This will be Nitish’s third term as CM but he would be sworn in for the fifth time. On two occasions, he took oath of office at Gandhi Maidan. But it would be the first time that his friend-turned-rival-turned-comrade lalu Prasad and his family would join the ceremony.
Unofficial sources claimed that about 36 legislators, 16 of RJD, 15 of JD(U) and five of Congress, are likely to be administered oath as Ministers. The speculation is rife in the political circles about an important assignment for lalu’s son Tejaswi Yadav but there are also talks that there might not be any Deputy CM.
Bihar JD(U) president Bashistha Narain Singh said that mandatory process would be completed before November 20. The separate meetings of the JD(U), RJD and Congress would be held where the leaders would be elected and then there would be a joint meeting of the three parties of the Mahagathbandhan where Nitish would be declared the leader of the alliance.