Nitish Kumar became Bihar Chief Minister for the fifth time as his 28-member Council of Ministers took oath at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Friday. While RJD and JDU have got 12 ministers each, Congress got four.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad’s sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav also took oath of office after Kumar’s swearing in. Tej Pratap made an error and was asked to repeat his oath. Governor Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office in presence of a gathering of more than one lakh people including party workers and supporters of the Grand Alliance comprising RJD, JDU and Congress.
The alliance had registerred a stunning victory in the Bihar assembly elections with absolute majority earlier this month, defeating BJP. Top leaders from many political parties and chief ministers of several states also attended the ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who could not attend the function due to prior engagements, sent Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu as representative of the Union Government at the oath ceremony.
