Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM

'I am ready to meet the Prime Minister and other minister in the interest of Bihar'

Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister on Sunday, ending a month-long political drama which saw the unceremonious stepping down of rebel leader Jitan Ram Manjhi from the CM’s chair.

Kumar, back as CM for a fourth time, said he was willing to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his bête noire, to seek help in the interest of the state. “I am ready to meet the Prime Minister and other ministers in the interest of Bihar,” he said, adding: “I have no reservations in meeting anyone, if that person can help our state. Our government has big expectations from the central government and we would need their help to ensure fast development.”

Bihar governor K N Tripathi administered oath of office and secrecy to Kumar and his 22 Cabinet colleagues. All the Cabinet members have been allotted their old portfolios, which they used to hold in the Manjhi government.

Nitish said he would continue to work on his earlier priorities to ensure fast development. Good governance was and will remain our government’s biggest priority. “Law and order, social justice and development would be our focus. We would continue to work hard in the areas of law and order, infrastructure, education, health, social development, agriculture and electricity. I also have to make up for lost time. I know I have to work hard and I am ready for this.”

Kumar added he would look into the decisions of the Manjhi Cabinet and implement these on the basis of merit and resources.

Last week, the Manjhi cabinet had taken about 100 populist decisions, including reservation for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe contractors in government works, reservation to the poor sections of upper castes, free electricity to small farmers etc.

A 10-fold increase in allowances for Home Guard jawans, pay increase for the state police, 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs, and a committee to give pay-scales to about 300,000 contractual teachers.

He also indicated towards forming an alliance with the CMs of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha. “I thank Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Tarun Gogoi (CMs of the first three) for coming to my swearing-in ceremony. It's a good start. I hope dialogues, discussion and initiatives would continue in future. I would also like to invite Naveen Patnaik (CM of Odisha) to join this partnership. Our primary focus will be to ensure fast development of eastern states, which have been lagging in development,” he said.