Nitish Kumar Sworn In as Bihar Chief Minister for Record 9th Time

Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for a record ninth time on Sunday.

He was administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan.

Along with Nitish Kumar, a total of eight leaders took oath as cabinet ministers in the new BJP-JD(U) government. Three leaders from BJP namely Samrat Choudhary, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Prem Kumar; three from JDU namely Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawon Kumar; and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) President Santosh Kumar Suman and independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh took oath as ministers today.

The last time, Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister was in 2022 when he severed his ties with the NDA and joined the RJD, Congress and the Left alliance and became the chief minister of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar breaking ties with the grand alliance has also come as big jolt to the unity of the Opposition's bloc I.N.D.I.A. which was formed to take on BJP-led NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, due to be held in April-May this year.

It's worth mentioning that Nitish Kumar was at the first place had taken the initiative to bring all the opposition parties together to take on the BJP in the forthcoming polls.

However, speculations were rife that he may switch sides once again after Lalan Singh was replaced by Nitish Kumar as party's chief in a key meeting that was held earlier this month.