Nitish Kumar, president of the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), has taken oath as the Chief Minister of India’s eastern state of Bihar for the tenth time. In the political history of India since independence, no leader has ever taken oath as Chief Minister ten times before.
The ceremony was held on Thursday at the historic Gandhi Maidan in the state capital, Patna. Alongside Nitish Kumar, 30 other ministers were also sworn in. Among them, 16 ministers are from the BJP, while the remaining 14 portfolios have gone to JD(U).
Since India’s independence in 1947, no head of a state government has taken oath so many times. If the current state government led by Nitish Kumar completes its full five-year constitutional term, he will also hold the record for the longest-serving Chief Minister.
The 243-seat Bihar Legislative Assembly went to polls in two phases, on November 6 and 11. The Election Commission reported an average voter turnout of 67 percent. According to the declared results, the BJP-JD(U)-led NDA coalition won 202 out of 242 seats. The opposition alliance of the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) secured 35 seats.
Within the NDA, the BJP won 89 seats, JD(U) won 85 seats, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party secured 19 seats and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha won 5 seats.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the oath-taking ceremony. Several Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu were also present at the event.