Nitish Kumar, who resigned from the post of top leadership of the State and deserted his partner RJD, took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for a record ninth time with BJP as the new alliance partner, eliciting criticism from all sides.
Creating the new Grand Alliance in August two years back by cutting political ties with the NDA and uniting the Opposition to take on BJP until recent days, the Janata Dal United leader after meeting the Governor said, “I have resigned from the post of chief minister today” terming the situation as “not looking good” and Grand Alliance not being “in a good condition”.
BJP’s Samrat Choudhury, Vijay Sinha also took oath as Deputies with Nitish Kumar amid slogans of Jai Shree Ram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai in presence of JP Nadda, Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) will be a part of the new government and its president Dr Santosh Kumar Suman took oath on Sunday.
As Nitish Kumar will get a new cabinet now, the move attracted criticism from all sides. While Tejashwi Yadav predicted the JD-U’s end this year, Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at Nitish Kumar for creating a new record of betrayal.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor forecasted changes within six months in Bihar political scenario after the Lok Sabha election and Nitish Kumar will not win above 20 seats in the State election in 2025.
In 2000, when Nitish Kumar became the CM for the first time, he was against RJD and opposed Lalu Prasad Yadav. He left the NDA in 2013and joined RJD in 2015 polls till 2017 to go back to the NDA. In 2022, Nitish Kumar again quit the NDA and came back to RJD.
Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge remained unsuccessful in persuading Nitish Kumar and said his switch was pre-planned but kept the Grand Old Party and the RJD leadership in the dark.
