On Tuesday, the Janata Dal (United) chief had resigned as the chief minister after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
According to the report, Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time at the Raj Bhavan in Patna. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav was sworn in as his deputy.
On Tuesday, Kumar had resigned as the chief minister after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. Hours later, he staked claim to form a new government after being elected as the leader of the grand alliance of nine parties, including the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress.
D(U) is the third major ally to snap ties with the BJP in the last three years. Earlier, the Shiromani Akali Dal severed its ties over the three farm laws, and in 2019, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra joined hands with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
Relations between the BJP and the JD(U) had soured recently because of disagreements over a host of matters such as a proposed population control law, caste census, demand for special category status for Bihar and the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme.
In June, thousands of protestors burnt train coaches, damaged public property and ransacked offices in Bihar during an agitation against the Agnipath scheme, which provides for short-term recruitment into the armed forces. The JD(U) had urged the Centre to reconsider the scheme.
On August 7, the JD(U) said it will not be a part of the expansion of Narendra Modi’s Union Cabinet. Kumar had also skipped the NITI Aayog meet chaired by the prime minister on the same day.
This is the second time that Kumar has severed ties with the BJP.
In 2013, he left the NDA after Modi was announced as the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, in 2017, he left the Grand Alliance to rejoin the NDA.
