Moments after taking oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for the eighth time, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took a veiled attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and stated the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre needs to “worry” about its prospects in the 2024 general elections.
“Those who came to power in 2014, will they be victorious in 2024? I would like all (opposition) to be united for 2024,” Nitish told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan administered the oath of secrecy to Nitish at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan in Patna. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav took oath as his deputy.
Leaders of the BJP, which is the second largest party in the assembly with 77 MLAs, remained absent at the swearing in ceremony. Earlier, senior BJP leader and former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had claimed that the party, with which Kumar broke his alliance the previous day, had received “no invitation”.
Nitish ended his alliance with the BJP on Tuesday, resigned as the coalition Chief Minister, only to stake claim again hours later.
The JD(U) leader met the Governor and staked the claim to form a new government in Bihar. Nitish also submitted a list of 164 MLAs belonging to seven parties, including the RJD, Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha, Left parties and one independent, supporting him.
This came after Nitish was unanimously elected as leader of the grand alliance comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress at a joint meeting of these parties.
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