Nitish Kumar today took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time, heading a new government formed in partnership with the BJP. Mr Kumar replaced his ministers from the Rashtriya Janata Dal with those from the BJP and party leaders Samrat Chowdhury, Vijay Sinha and several others took oath along with him at the Raj Bhavan this afternoon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the new government with a message on X, formerly Twitter.
“The NDA government formed in Bihar will leave no stone unturned for the development of the state and to fulfill the aspirations of its people. I congratulate @NitishKumar as Chief Minister and Samrat Chaudhary ji and Vijay Sinha ji on taking oath as Deputy Chief Ministers. I am confident that this team will serve my family members of the state with full dedication,” said a rough translation from his message.
This is also the fifth time in a decade that the 72-year-old has switched camps – the frequency of the process has earned him the pejorative 'Paltu Kumar'.
Mr Kumar had last parted ways with the BJP in 2022. At the time, the chief minister was concerned that the BJP could cause a split in his Janata Dal United, like they did in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena.
Rejoining the NDA today, he cited his disappointment with the opposition bloc, saying that while he had galvanized the front, very little was being done by the others.
“The new Grand Alliance we established (in August 2022) is not in a good state. The situation does not look good,” he said.
“I have worked hard to form a successful, meaningful (INDIA) alliance, but no one else (in the alliance) has done anything… Gathbandhan main bhi gadbad chal rahan hai (something is wrong in the alliance). People are not happy,” he had told reporters.
However, sources say Kumar is angry over the lack of clarity in the election preparations in the INDIA bloc and is being passed over as a possible prime ministerial candidate. The delays in seat-sharing discussions for the Lok Sabha elections had been a further aggravation.