Nitish Kumar to Take Oath as Chief Minister for the 10th Time Today; Several MLAs to Join Cabinet, PM Modi to Attend
Patna (The Uttam Hindu): Nitish Kumar will take oath as Chief Minister on Thursday at 11:30 am at Gandhi Maidan. This will mark his 10th term as the CM of Bihar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the ceremony, along with Chief Ministers from several NDA-ruled states.
The event at Gandhi Maidan is expected to be one of the biggest political gatherings in recent years. Apart from PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP National President JP Nadda, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis will also be present.
List of Probable Ministers
Ashok Choudhary, Ramkripal Yadav, Sanjay Tiger and Deepak Prakash have received calls for ministerial appointments. In the JDU quota, the expected names include Shravan Kumar, Vijendra Yadav, Jama Khan and Madan Sahni. BJP State President Dilip Jaiswal is also likely to be inducted. From the Rashtriya Lok Morcha quota, Deepak Prakash will become a minister.
In the new Nitish Kumar government, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha will serve as Deputy Chief Ministers. Mangal Pandey and Nitin Navin are among the few who also served as ministers in the previous government. The cabinet will also include women ministers from the BJP — Shreyasi Singh and Rama Nishad — who will take oath today. JDU will get eight ministerial berths, while LJP(R), Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha will get one each.
Over three lakh people are expected to attend the ceremony. In view of the massive gathering, strict security arrangements have been put in place. Additional police forces have been deployed, surveillance cameras installed, and emergency medical units kept on standby to ensure smooth conduct of the event.
On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation as the outgoing Chief Minister to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, paving the way for the formation of a new government. He was accompanied by Union Minister Chirag Paswan, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha and Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.