Within a day after he resigned as the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar today was back at the helm of affairs in the state. Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister in the presence of Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also took charge as the deputy chief minister, soon after Nitish was sworn in.
In an unusual turn of events last night, high on political drama, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday evening resigned as chief minister dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him and said it will join it too.
Dawning the mantle for the sixth time in 12 years, Nitish Kumar took the oath in Hindi.
The new alliance has two days to prove its majority in the house.
Nitish Kumar ended a 20-month-long grand alliance coalition that defeated the BJP in 2015 and gave his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav—son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
Kumar met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with support of 132 MLAs.
Talking to the reporters after meeting the governor, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that Nitish Kumar had been invited to take oath at 10 am on Thursday.
"We gave letters of support of 132 MLAs," he said. Sushil Modi said they had requested the trust vote should take place at the earliest.
Sushil Modi said the letter of support had been given from MLAs belonging to JD-U, BJP, LJP, RLSP, HAM and two independents.
(With inputs from agencies)
