PM Modi, Amit Shah to attend grand ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan today Patna: In a meticulous display of unanimity, the NDA legislative party on Wednesday endorsed Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar for a record tenth time - an unprecedented milestone in Indian politics. He will take the oath at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday before a gallery of national heavyweights, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and chief ministers from 11 states. According to sources, Shah is expected to reach Patna on Wednesday evening. Earlier, at the NDA meeting in the Central Hall of the Bihar Assembly, BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary proposed Kumar’s name - an endorsement seconded without murmur. Soon after, Kumar, accompanied by Chaudhary, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan and other allies drove to Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and staked claim to form the next government. With that, the 17th Bihar Assembly was dissolved, clearing the path for the NDA to begin afresh. Prior to this, Nitish Kumar was unanimously chosen as the leader of the JD(U) legislative party, with all newly elected JD(U) lawmakers giving him their full support. Similarly, in the BJP legislative party meeting, Samrat Chaudhary was unanimously elected leader and Vijay Sinha the deputy leader. This indicates that Chaudhary and Sinha are likely to become Deputy Chief Ministers. Another speculation is that Chaudhary will continue as Deputy Chief Minister and the second Deputy CM post could go to the LJP (Ram Vilas). For all his political zigzags, Kumar remains unmatched in oath-taking longevity. He has already been sworn in nine times - eclipsing J. Jayalalithaa’s six terms in Tamil Nadu and will extend his record further. November, it seems, is his political talisman: Thursday’s ceremony will be his fifth November oath since 2005. In sheer tenure, he still trails Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim (24 years and 165 days), Naveen Patnaik of Odisha (24 years and 99 days), and Jyoti Basu of West Bengal (23 years and 137 days). Yet, Kumar’s near two-decade span - 19.2 years - has been achieved in a far more fractious political marketplace. Intense wrangling The NDA’s sweeping 202-seat victory in the 243-member Assembly sets the stage for a cabinet reshuffle of considerable breadth. Based on the alliance’s formula, the BJP may claim 15–16 berths, the JD(U) around 14–15, the LJP (Ram Vilas) two or three, and one each for the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha. Between eight and ten newcomers are expected to enter the ministry, with more women likely to feature this time. The BJP’s list of probables includes Chaudhary, Nitin Naveen, Mangal Pandey and Hari Sahni, while younger aspirants like Rana Randhir, Gayatri Devi, Vijay Khemka and Maithili Thakur have begun making their case. On the JD(U) side, stalwarts such as Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar and Ashok Chaudhary are tipped to return. Fresh faces may include Umesh Kushwaha, Kaladhar Mandal, Rahul Singh, Sudhanshu Shekhar and Panna Lal Singh Patel. Juma Khan, the NDA’s lone Muslim MLA, is also likely to be inducted. Minor allies, too, will extract their pound of flesh: Santosh Suman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, and Upendra Kushwaha’s spouse from the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, are poised for slots. Mr Paswan’s LJP may secure three berths, with Raju Tiwari, Sanjay Paswan and Sanjay Singh among the frontrunners. The real wrangling is over the choicest posts. The JD(U) is pushing hard for the Assembly Speakership and the Home portfolio; the BJP would prefer to keep them. That the LJP now wants a deputy chief ministership further thickens the broth. Negotiations are continuing at the national level, and the veneer of consensus could thin quickly if the distribution of spoils is deemed unequal. Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM, Guv accepts it JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar on Wednesday submitted his resignation as the head of the outgoing NDA government in Bihar to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, state BJP president Dilip Jaiswal said. The governor accepted his resignation and asked him to continue as caretaker chief minister until a new government is formed, Jaiswal told reporters. Kumar was accompanied by Union minister Chirag Paswan, RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya during his visit to Raj Bhavan.
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