Summary
Tomorrow will be the 8th time that Nitish Kumar will swear in as the chief minister of Bihar
- Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's CM for the first time in 2000. He was the CM for only a week as he couldn't prove his majority.
- Then in 2005 he was sworn in as the CM for the 2nd time and completed his term.
- In 2010 he was sworn in as Bihar's CM for the 3rd time.
- In 2014 he resigned from his position and Jeetan Ram Manjhi was Bihar's CM till February 2015. Nitish Kumar returned as the state's CM in February 2015. He took his oath for the 4th time.
- In November 2015, Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's CM for the 5th time after 'The Mahagathbandhan' won the assembly elections.
- In July 2017, Kumar stepped out of Mahagathbandhan and joined hands with NDA. Then he was sworn in as Bihar's CM for the 6th time.
- In 2020, JD(U) fought Bihar's assembly elections as an NDA ally. And Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's CM for the 7th time.
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Sushil Modi dismisses JD(U)'s allegations that BJP wanted to break party
Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Tuesday dismissed JD(U)'s allegations that the BJP wanted to break the party and made RCP Singh Union minister without Nitish Kumar's consent. He further said JD(U) was looking for an excuse to break ties with BJP, and underlined that "BJP will come back to power with a thumping majority in 2024." "It is a white lie that BJP had made RCP Singh Union minister without Nitishji's consent. It is also a lie that BJP wanted to break JD(U)," Modi said in a tweet.
Singh was made Union minister last year as JD(U) representative but forced to resign last month as his Rajya Sabha term ended and his party denied him another term. Earlier in the day, Singh also tweeted expressing similar sentiments saying that JD(U)'s snapping of ties is a "betrayal of the mandate of 2020 given by the people of Bihar in favour of NDA." Modi, now Rajya Sabha MP, enjoyed good rapport with Kumar while serving as his deputy for many years.
BJP suffers setback in Bihar but sees opportunity to grow
Loss of power in Bihar has upset the BJP's calculations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls but a section of its leaders also see a chance for the party to break the dominance of regional parties in the state like it has in Uttar Pradesh. JD(U) leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to dump the BJP for the RJD-led opposition, for the second time in nine years, comes when the alliance had lost much of the fizz in the recent months as differences between the two parties grew.
While a section of Bihar BJP leaders was no longer much keen on the alliance, its central leadership believed the JD(U)'s presence in the ruling National Democratic Alliance would help it repeat in the 2024 polls its 2019 show when it had won 39 of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats.
A Janata Dal (United) legislator said Kumar told the meeting of the party MPs and MLAs on Tuesday that he had received a call from Delhi, an apparent reference to the BJP, on Monday. But Kumar had told the person that the decision about the alliance will be taken at the gathering of JD(U) members. He did not take any name.
JD(U) third major ally to snap ties with BJP in last three years
The JD(U) on Tuesday became the third major ally after the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal to snap ties with the BJP after 2019. Within 18 months of the BJP's second consecutive Lok Sabha election victory, the party had lost two of its oldest allies - Shiv Sena and Akali Dal.
And now, with less than two years left for the next general elections, another major ally JD(U), the biggest in terms of lawmakers, moved out of the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). JD(U)'s George Fernandes was once the convener of the NDA but the Nitish Kumar-led party snapped ties with the BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi emerged as the main face of the saffron party.
Nitish Kumar spoke with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and expressed gratitude for support: Congress sources to PTI
#Update: The swearing-in ceremony of chief minister and deputy chief minister will be held tomorrow at 2:00 PM at Raj Bhavan: RJD
Chief minister Nitish Kumar gave his resignation to state Governor Phagu Chauhan. The Governor accepted his resignation & further requested him to continue as acting CM of the state: Bihar CMO
JD(U)-RJD led 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) in Bihar to take oath at 4:00 PM, tomorrow
Nitish Kumar has left and said that BJP was trying to destroy his party...BJP made him a union minister several times. He was also made a CM. Why did he re-think his decision on alliance with RJD in 2015 & came to BJP in 2017?: BJP MP RS Prasad
Nitish Kumar: Master of the art of changing governments
Nitish Kumar has again proven that he is a master of the art of changing governments. For some, it was a reversal of happenings in 2017, when he dumped the RJD-led 'Mahagathbandhan' to rejoin the NDA, while for others it was a reversal of happenings in Maharshtra where a Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government was overthrown to form a BJP-rebel Sena government.
Said Ranabir Samaddar, well-known political scientist and former professor of Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Bihar has become the flipside of the Maharashtra coin. The frequent change of platforms -- from secular socialist to aligning with a right wing party to being upholder of Dalit rights -- may have diminished Nitish's standing as the sushasan' (good governance) man, but his political ability to do the impossible has certainly not diminished.
If he sustains the momentum of what he managed to do now with his new movement, then 2024 general elections in Bihar, where 40 crucial seats will go to polls, will prove to be a real battleground for the BJP, said CPIML(L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who also practices psephology.