New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar is all set to take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar, for a record 10th time on Thursday. The ceremony is set to be held at the iconic Gandhi Maidan. Several top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are likely to attend the ceremony. The alliance partners are hoping to turn the event into a show of strength.
Leaders likely to take oath
According to reports, the son of Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLM), Upendra Kushwaha, is likely to take oath as a minister. Deepak Prakash, is not an elected MLA. In fact he didn’t even contest the recently concluded Assembly Elections in the state.
In all likelihood, he will be elected as an MLA from the Legislative Council. RLM is set to get one seat from the Council according to the seat sharing formula agreed to by the alliance partners of the National Democratic Alliance.
Apart from the RLM, the BJP is also likely to get a favourable number of seats in Nitish Kumar’s new cabinet. The party is anyway, the largest party in the Legislative Council.
The BJP will retain the position of Deputy CM in the new government, Both Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary are likely to remain Deputy CMs, like in the previous NDA government. Apart from this, the BJP’s Shreyas Singh, Ram Nishad, Surendra Mahto, Mangal Pandey, Nitin Nabin, Narayan Shah, Ram Kripal and Sanjay Tiger will take oath alongside the Chief Minister.
Apart from these BJP leaders, the party’s Bihar incharge Dilip Jaiswal is also likely to take oath as Minister at the swearing-in ceremony.
The new Bihar Cabinet is likely to have 16 ministers from the BJP and 14 from the JD(U). Sources quoted by NDTV said that the alliance partners have reached a consensus to appoint BJP’s Prem Kumar as the Assembly Speaker. The Deputy Speaker is likely to be from the JD(U).
The NDA won 202 seats in the recently concluded Assembly Elections in the state. BJP bagged 89 seats, the JD(U) 85, the LJP(RV) 19, HAM 5 and RLM 4.