Nitish, ministers take oath of office

Nitish Kumar, who led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a landslide victory in the Bihar elections, was sworn in as chief minister for a second consecutive term today. Kumar will be heading a 30-member ministry.

Sushil Kumar Modi of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was sworn in as a Cabinet minister. He will be the deputy chief minister. Besides, 18 Members of Legislative Assembly from Janata Dal (United) and 10 from BJP took oath as ministers. No leader from the opposition parties, which were decimated in the polls, was present at the swearing-in ceremony. Governor Devanand Konwar administered the oath of office and secrecy at the function held at Gandhi Maidan here.

The swearing-in was conducted under tight security, as the function coincided with the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai. Among all ministers, 11 are from upper castes, nine from backward castes and four each from extremely backward castes and schedule castes, and two are muslims.

Fifty nine-year-old Kumar inducted his close confidante and state JD (U) president Vijay Kumar Choudhary and gave Cabinet berths as reward to Ramai Ram and Shyam Rajak, who had parted ways with RJD Chief Lalu Prasad and joined JD(U). He retained Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Narendra Singh, Brishen Patel, Renu Kumari, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Gautam Singh, Damodar Raut, Sahid Ali Khan and Hariprasad Sah, who were ministers during his previous tenure.

Among the new entrants in the ministry from JD(U) are Praveen Amanullah from the Sahebpur Kamal constituency in Begusarai district. She is wife of Principal Secretary to state Cabinet coordination department, Afzal Amanullah. Nitish Mishra, son of former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, senior MLC Bhim Singh, Awadhesh Kushwaha and legal expert and former advocate general P K Sahi took oath as ministers. Mishra was state minister for disaster management in the previous NDA government.

Besides Modi, others from BJP who took oath are Nand Kishore Yadav, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Prem Kumar, Giriraj Singh and Janardan Sigriwal, who were ministers in the previous government. New faces from BJP who took oath are Sukhda Pandey, Sunil Kumar Pintoo, Satyadeo Narayan Arya and Ramadhar Singh. The ceremony was attended by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Rajnath Singh, Anant Kumar and Shatrughan Sinha. From the JD(U), its National President Sharad Yadav, besides former chief minister Jagannath Mishra and several members from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from Bihar were present.

Soon after being sworn in, Kumar sought the blessings of his ailing 92-year-old mother, Parmeshwari Devi, at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology.