Within ten hours of submitting his resignation as Chief Minister of the so-called ‘secular’ Mahagathbandhan, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the CM of NDA on Thursday morning at Raj Bhavan. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also took oath and was designated as Deputy CM, the post he held from 2005 to 2013 under Nitish.
Thursday’s swearing-in of Nitish was his sixth as CM and third for Sushil Modi. Nitish earlier took oath on March 3, 2000 (for seven days), November 24, 2005, November 26, 2010, February 22, 2015, November 11, 2015 and now July 27, 2017.
The new Government will seek vote of confidence in the Assembly on Friday. A resolution to this effect was taken at a Cabinet meeting requesting the Governor to convene a special session of the Assembly, said Modi.
While the supporters of the JD(U) and the BJP burst crackers and sprinkled gulal, RJD workers burned the effigies of Nitish at several places. RJD supremo lalu Prasad, who was in Ranchi to appear in the CBI court, made a vitriolic attack on Nitish calling him an opportunist. lalu even accused Nitish of being hand in glove with the BJP and RSS in activating the CBI, ED and I-T against him and his family.
After the swearing-in, Nitish said, “We took this decision in the larger interest of Bihar and its people and development with justice of the State. I want to assure the people that my commitment is to their development. With the public mandate, I had been striving hard to serve them and continue serving them in future too.”
Modi said, “After the NDA Government at the Centre, we have NDA Government in Bihar. It will certainly help the State and the Centre will definitely help Bihar.”
Asked to react on the AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of him, Nitish said, “I will reply to everything at a suitable time.”
The Cabinet is likely to be constituted and administered oath on the weekend after Nitish seeks the confidence vote. Sources said a list of 14 leaders has been submitted to the CM by the BJP for being appointed as Ministers. It was not clear if the list contained names of BJP’s legislators only or also of NDA partners.
RJD leaders Jagdanand Singh, Manoj Jha and Abdul Bari Siddiqui held a Press conference at the party office and threatened that RJD and Congress alliance will not allow it to run the Assembly session. Jha said, “This Assembly has lost moral right to function. The mandate has been trampled. let the public decide.” Siddiqui said that Nitish had betrayed the mandate of the people for personal ambition.
Retaliating against the RJD’s charge, JD(U) leaders Rajiv Ranjan Singh lalan and RCP Singh said, “The mandate was also not for protecting lalu and his family for their wrong doings, corruption, amassing huge wealth and benami assets.”
After the speedy developments and changes in Bihar on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, cracks have seemingly appeared both in the JD(U) and the RJD.
While a couple of JD(U)’s Rajya Sabha members, including Ali Anwar, opposed Nitish’s decision, RJD MlA Maheshwar Yadav blamed lalu for the breaking of Mahagathbandhan. Yadav, the MlA from Gaighat, said, “A number of MlAs wanted that Tejashwi should resign but lalu was adamant. He destroyed this alliance for his putra-moh (love for son).”