Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM for the 8th time, Tejashwi Yadav becomes deputy

Nitish Kumar, leader of Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), took oath as Bihar’s chief minister on Wednesday (August 10) for the eight time after announcing a new ‘grand alliance’ with Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other opposition parties. Tejashwi Yadav has been sworn in as the deputy chief minister. Kumar recently resigned as Bihar’s chief minister after breaking alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After Kumar’s resignation, Nitish and other leaders addressed a joint press conference and announced theirnew ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance, consisting of seven parties, and claimed support of 165 MLAs, including an Independent.

On a day of quick and sudden political developments in Bihar, Kumar earlier met the governor, Phagu Chauhan, twice: once to submit his resignation as CM, and the second time to stake claim for a new government after being chosen as the leader of the grand alliance.

BJPattacked Kumar for snapping the pre-poll allianceand accused him of having disrespected the mandate given by the people of Bihar.

Kumar, who is being trolled on social media for switching sides frequently,had earlier severed ties with the BJP in 2013 but had aligned again with it in 2017. He claimed that the decision to break ties was taken by a unanimous vote. JD-U membersclaimed that ties with the BJP deteriorated due to a number of instances, including RCP Singh’s exit from the party.

Inthe joint press conference, Tejashwi criticised the BJP and accused it of destroying parties with whom it formed an alliance. He said, “Across the Hindi heartland, BJP does not have any alliance partner. History shows that the BJP destroys the parties with whom it makes alliances. We did see that happening in Punjab and Maharashtra.”

Kumar has worked with the BJP several times in the last 20 years and had even served as a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government at the Centre in 1996. JD-U is the third major ally to snap ties with the BJP in the last three yearsafter Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal.

(With inputs from agencies)

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