Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM for the ninth time, says coalition with BJP 'here to stay'

BJP leaders -- Samrat Choudhary and former Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha- were among those who took oath of office. The two are named as Deputy Chief Ministers.

New Delhi: Barely a year after senior leaders of the BJP said that they will not allow Nitish Kumar to come back to the NDA fold, Kumar staked claim to be Bihar CM for a record ninth term with the help of BJP MLAs. Senior party leaders said that derailing the I.N.D.I.A Alliance was top of the agenda and when they saw an opportunity they took it. That the opportunity came right ahead of the Bharat Jodo Yatra entering Bihar was hard to refuse, leaders said.

After he took oath as the chief minister, Kumar said the coalition is here to stay. “We will stay together. Eight leaders took oath as ministers today and the rest will be inducted soon. Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha have been appointed as Deputy Chief Ministers,” he said.

A senior party leader involved with the process said that the movement means that the I.N.D.I.A Alliance is almost finished. “Their biggest political plank was the caste census, which was fronted by Nitish Kumar. Without him, there is no I.N.D.I.A Alliance,” the leader said.

Going over the sequence of the fact-paced developments, the senior BJP leader said that while the BJP waited and watched, they moved as soon as the development unfolded. “When Nitish called for a meeting of the Janata Dal (United) where we planned to resign, at the backdrop of this unprecedented situation, we held a meeting of the BJP legislative party and said that if needed, we will extend our support to the JDU,” the senior leader said.

Nitish then sent JDU leader Sanjay Jha as the envoy, the leader added. “We readily agreed. A meeting of NDA leaders was called for and the deal was sealed,” the leader said.

BJP sources said that having Nitish back into the fold has lifted the party’s prospects in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections. “Extremely Backward Castes – a segment that has an appeal for Nitish – constitute 36% of the state’s population. Kushwaha castes account for 4%, Kurmis add up to 3%, Paswans are 5-6%, and Manjhis have a voterbase of 2-3% in the state. This gathbandhan (alliance) will ensure that we win all of the state’s 40 seats,” the leader said.

BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday described Kumar as a "natural alliance partner", expressing happiness over his return to the NDA.

Addressing a press conference after Kumar's swearing in, Nadda said, "The people of Bihar had given the mandate in the last assembly polls to our natural alliance with Nitish Kumar. We are happy to have him back. Bihar has enjoyed stability whenever we have shared power. Things have looked up, be it infrastructure or law and order."

Sources in the JD(U) said that a voter survey did not show Nitish Kumar’s prospects alone favourably, and that the chief minister moving to the Centre post the Lok Sabha elections could not be ruled out.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 17 seats and the JDU 16 with both parties fighting the elections as part of the NDA. The Lok Janshakti Party won 6 seats and the Congress 1.

National General Secretary of BJP OBC Morcha Nikhil Anand said that the Rashtriya Janata Dal was responsible. “RJD had borrowed power and had become a victim of excessive ambition, and as a result, INDI Alliance became a victim of Lalu ji’s personal ambitions. One must remember that Lalu ji had not allowed Mulayam Singh Yadav ji to become PM twice in his selfishness, and this time, since his demands to have his son Tejaswi become the CM was unfulfilled, he did not let Nitish Kumar become the convenor, derailing the Alliance,” Anand said.

The development, coming ahead of the Bharat Jodo Yatra entering Kishanganj on Monday, will play spoilsport to the Congress. Nitish Kumar was set to attend the rally in Purnia on January 30. The possibility of Tejashwi Yadav also joining the rally is slim, with the Enforcement Directorate issuing him summons on the very day.