Patna: JD(U) president Nitish Kumar Sunday took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth time.
He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan here.
Along with Kumar, BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha, Samrat Choudhary and Prem Kumar took oath as ministers in the new government.
JD(U) members Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Vijendra Yadav and Shrawan Kumar also took oath in addition to 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.
Kumar had earlier in the day resigned as the chief minister, saying “things were not working well” for him in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and in the opposition bloc INDIA, and staked claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.
BJP national president JP Nadda and other senior party leaders were present at the swearing in ceremony.
Kumar’s former ‘Mahagathbandhan’ ally RJD boycotted the event, while another former ally Congress remained absent.
The JD(U) supremo first took oath as the state’s chief minister back in 2000, but his government fell within a week.
In May 2014, he stepped down but returned eight months later, elbowing out his then protege Jitan Ram Manjhi, as CM in November 2015, when the coalition of 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 again after the 2020 assembly polls, which the NDA won, but the JD(U) performed poorly.
The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members.
PTI