He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind at oath taking ceremony held at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna.
Apart from him, Governor also administer oath of office to 28 ministers from Grand Alliance comprising RJD, JD(U) and Congress parties.
First time MLA Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav who are sons of RJD president Lalu Prasad were also sworn in as ministers.
Background
- Grand Alliance comprising of RJD, JDU and Congress (INC) had emerged victorious in the 2015 Bihar state assembly elections by winning 178 seats of total 243 assembly seats.
- RJD led by former Union Minister Lalu Prasad had emerged as largest party in the Grand Alliance by winning 80 seats. It was followed by JDU which had won 71 seats and Congress 27.
- The rest of the ministerial berths are being left in view of possible dissidence by legislators who have been accommodated or left out.
- As per early indications, the virtual number 2 in the last Nitish Kumar ministry, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who was also the water resources minister, could be elected as the speaker of the assembly.
- The Congress was interested in this post.
- The swearing-in ceremony attended by leaders of various political parties including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister HD Devegowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his National Conference counterpart Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad among others.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend the ceremony due to ‘prior engagements’, however, Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy represented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government at the swearing-in.
- West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has also attended the ceremony.
About Nitish Kumar
- Born on: 1st March 1951 in Bakhtiarpur District of Bihar.
- Political career: He had started his political career by taking part in the mass movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974 and 1977.
- Nitish Kumar was elected to Bihar legislative assembly for first time in 1985. He was elected to Lok Sabha for 4 consecutive times, first in 1989 than in 1991, 1996 and 1998.
- Union Minister: In 1990, for a brief stint he had served as Union Minister of Agriculture. In 1998-99, he had served as Union Minister for Railways and Surface Transport and Minister for Agriculture. He also had served as Union Cabinet Minister for Railways in the NDA Government led Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 2001-2004.
- CM of Bihar: In 2000, he was made CM of Bihar for first time but had resigned within 7 days. In 2005 for second time he was sworn in as the CM of Bihar and for third time in 2010. For fourth time he was sworn-in as CM in February 2015.