PATNA/NEW DELHI: Nitish Kumar is set to take oath for an unprecedented 10th time as Bihar CM on Thursday after leading his party, JDU, and the governing bloc, NDA, to their second-best performance in the state, proving his resilience and popularity in an election where he was perceived as a vulnerable link in the alliance.Nitish and his ministerial colleagues will be sworn in at the historic Gandhi Maidan – the sprawling venue of his inauguration in 2005, and later in 2010 and 2015, before he chose the sober precincts of the Raj Bhawan as he swung between alliances and his stock fell. PM Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and several CMs, and allies such as N Chandrababu Naidu and Eknath Shinde will attend the ceremony.Sources said around 20 legislators may be sworn as ministers against a maximum strength of 36. Samrat Choudhary, Vijay Sinha likely to retain deputy CM postsDeliberations continued late on Thursday to finalise details of portfolio allocations after Shah arrived in Patna.PM Narendra Modi had not attended the ceremony in 2020, an election in which NDA barely scraped through due to the drastic fall in JDU’s tally to 43 from 71 in 2015. Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda were then the main presence from their party.If the return to Gandhi Maidan, likely to be thronged by a big crowd of supporters, attests to Nitish Kumar’s bolstered political strength after JDU’s numbers soared to 85, the presence of BJP bigwigs underscores the surge in the party’s confidence as well as its show of support to his leadership. BJP has emerged as the single-largest party with 89 seats.Nitish (74) was elected the leader of the NDA legislature party in a meeting of MLAs and senior leaders of its five constituents – LJP(RV), HAM(S) and RLM besides the two main parties – and he was then joined by allies in staking claim to governor Arif Mohammad Khan.BJP lawmakers re-elected Samrat Choudhary, an OBC Kushwaha, as their leader, while Vijay Kumar Sinha, a upper caste Bhumihar, was picked as his deputy, in a clear indication that they would retain the position of deputy CMs in the new govt. BJP has stuck to the backward-upper caste combination for the top two jobs from its quota, a social coalition which was the hallmark of its candidate selection in the election.BJP and JDU have held lengthy deliberations to finalise details of the new govt, with both parties agreeing to the status-quo in key positions after exchange of differing views. If there was a suggestion from some in JDU for getting the speaker’s post, currently held by its ally, BJP indicated its keenness for the home department, which is administered by Nitish, sources said, adding that the existing arrangement is likely to continue.Sources said, among outgoing ministers, Nitin Nabin, Mangal Pandey, Nitish Mishra and Sanjay Saraogi may be retained from the BJP quota. JDU’s Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lacy Singh and Shravan Kumar, too, are tipped to be sworn in as ministers again along with representatives of three other allies.After being elected BJP legislature party leader, Choudhary said the new govt would work in overdrive to fulfill the development vision of Modi and Nitish for Bihar.
