After a stunning about-face, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar took the oath of office as Chief Minister of Bihar on Sunday for a record-breaking ninth time. He left the Mahagathbandhan and the opposition alliance INDIA and formed a new government with the BJP, which he had left less than 18 months before.
Kumar’s most recent crossover, his sixth in just over ten years, concluded a day filled with intense political drama and finger-pointing. It is also considered a major blow to the unity of the opposition before the next Lok Sabha elections.
Hours after he resigned from the position, citing “things were not working well” for him in the Grand Alliance and the opposition bloc, Kumar took the oath of office at Raj Bhavan in the evening in front of senior leaders, including BJP national president J P Nadda.
A number of BJP heavyweights, including Samrat Choudhary and former Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, took the oath of office. Kumar designates the two as Deputy Chief Ministers.
Following the swearing-in event, Kumar said to the press, “I’ve returned to my previous location.” Going back is now out of the question. Choudhary and Sinha, two of the eight individuals sworn in today, will serve as my deputies.
Choudhary and Sinha had previously been announced as the BJP legislative party’s leader and deputy leader, respectively. The BJP’s attempt to engage the OBCs and fortify its traditional upper caste base was demonstrated by the two’s selection. The two leaders pledged to “protect Bihar from the jungle raj unleashed by Lalu Prasad’s RJD” and thanked the party’s upper echelon for the chance.
Along with independent legislator Sumit Singh and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustan Awam Morcha’s Santosh Kumar Suman, JD(U) members Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Vijendra Yadav, and Shrawan Kumar also took an oath of office. Kumar and his two deputies received congratulations from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi stated on X that he was sure the newly sworn-in NDA government in Bihar would work tirelessly to fulfill the hopes and dreams of the people and that it would do everything in its power to further the state’s development. Remarkably, the assembly’s largest party, the RJD, did not send a leader to the ceremony.
Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Prasad and the Deputy Chief Minister prior to Kumar’s departure from the alliance, declared that “the JD(U) will be destroyed in the upcoming assembly polls”.
“For us, the game is still ongoing. The young leader declared, “The game has just begun.”
In a series of posts on X, his elder sister Rohini Acharya, who lives in Singapore, and elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who was also a minister, made fun of the JD(U) president by comparing him to a “chameleon”.
“Nitish Kumar has committed political suicide,” senior Congress leader and former chief minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Singh Baghel told reporters in Purnea. This will be demonstrated in the next days.
As the junior partner of the Mahagathbandhan government, Baghel was in the Bihar district to supervise the arrangements for the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” led by Rahul Gandhi, which was slated to arrive in the state on Monday from the Kishanganj district. The CPI(ML) Liberation, which externally backed the Mahagathbandhan government, attacked Kumar sharply and labeled him a “betrayal”.
The party’s general secretary, Dipankar Bhattacharya, expressed his disapproval on Facebook, accusing Kumar, “who has had the longest stint as CM,” of being used “as its pawn” by the RSS-BJP alliance.
Prashant Kishor, a former political strategist who entered politics, also made fun of Kumar, stating that “switching sides has become part of his politics” and warning that the BJP will pay “a huge price” for backing the leader of the JD(U), who had abandoned it in August 2020.
In an apparent attempt to allay the concerns of minor coalition members, BJP national president J P Nadda had brought along outspoken opponent of Kumar but ardent NDA ally Chirag Paswan for the swearing-in event. Upendra Kushwaha, a former JD(U) member and minor NDA ally, told reporters in Karakat that Nitish Kumar is his big brother, but he made the wrong decision. He has since founded a new party.
After the oath-taking ceremony, Nadda, who had been spotted conversing with Kumar for some time, attended a news conference where he declared that the president of JD(U) was a “natural” coalition partner and that he was confident the NDA will win all 40 seats in Bihar and sweep the Lok Sabha elections.
Additionally, the BJP president made fun of the opposition group INDIA, of which up until Friday Kumar was considered a pivotal member. According to him, the front represents “bhrashtachar bachao, parivar bachao,” which means “protect corruption and save the family.”
Kumar informed reporters, following his previous resignation, that “the government that was in place now comes to an end.” I’ve moved on from it.
The 72-year-old leader expressed dissatisfaction with the status of affairs in the Mahagathbandhan and the INDIA bloc, which he assisted in shaping but which did not sufficiently acknowledge his contributions.
“You are all aware of my journey to form this coalition and my efforts to unite numerous parties. However, things had been going wrong lately. According to Kumar, “It was not sitting well with those in my party either.”
Following a JD(U) legislature party meeting when he was given authority to make any decisions on the alliance, Kumar tendered his resignation.
After severing ties with the BJP in August 2022, Kumar joined the Mahagathbandhan, alleging it of attempting to “split” his JD(U).
RJD and Congress were part of the multi-party coalition he assembled to form a new administration.
In 2000, Kumar was sworn in for the first time as the state’s chief minister. But in less than a week, his government collapsed. In 2005, he took over as CM once more, and five years later, he was back in charge.
Even after splitting from the BJP in 2013, Kumar managed to hold onto power because the JD(U), which at the time was only a few seats short of a majority, received outside backing from the Congress and CPI in addition to a disgruntled section of the RJD.
However, he resigned a year later, taking moral responsibility for the JD(U)’s crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
Less than a year later, he returned to his position as chief minister, displacing his disobedient protégé Jitan Ram Manjhi with considerable backing from the Congress and the RJD.
The Grand Alliance, which was formed after JD(U), Congress, and RJD joined forces, easily won the 2015 assembly elections but disintegrated after just two years.
In 2017, after criticising Tejashwi Yadav, his former deputy, for his alleged involvement in corruption, Kumar rejoined the NDA in the hopes of gaining some momentum.
The Bihar Assembly currently has 243 members, with 44 MLAs from JD(U) and 78 from the BJP. Additionally, one Independent member backs Kumar. The Hindustani Awam Morcha, led by Jitan Ram Manjhi, currently has four MLAs and is a component of the NDA.
With their combined 114 MLAs, the RJD (79), Congress (19), and Left parties (16) are eight MLAs shy of a majority.
