Nitish Kumar elected NDA leader, to take oath as Bihar CM tomorrow

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners which met on Sunday at the CM’s official residence at 1, Anney Marg, chose Nitish Kumar as the next chief minister of Bihar.

BJP MLC and Nitish Kumar’s deputy, Sushil Kumar Modi was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party while Tarkeshwar Prasad has been elected as the leader of the BJP in the Bihar assembly.

Kumar was elected unanimously at the meeting in the presence of defence minister Rajnath Singh, who was appointed as an observer by the BJP central leadership. Kumar will take oath as the chief minister for the seventh time on Monday.

The meeting was attended by all the 125 newly-elected alliance MLAs comprising BJP, JD (U), HAM-S and VIP.

Kumar later went to the Governor’s house to hand over the letter for government formation and list of MLAs of the alliance. One independent candidate has also extended support to the NDA.

NDA sources said that a couple of ministers are also likely to be sworn-in with Kumar.

Earlier in the day, before the NDA meeting, Kumar was also elected as JD (U) legislature party leader. Kumar is a member of the Bihar legislative council.

In the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections, the BJP had won 74 seats, JD-U 43, while eight seats were won by two other NDA constituents. The NDA combined won 125 seats, which is three more than the majority mark in the 243-strong Bihar assembly. The RJD, led by 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav, emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats. The opposition alliance won 110 seats.

The Bihar governor dissolved the assembly on November 13.