Nitish Kumar sworn in as Bihar CM, Tejaswi Yadav is Deputy CM

In contrast, Bihar ” s new deputy chief minister 26-year-old Tejashwi Yadav, who also took oath of office on Friday, is only a 9th pass and his climb to fame other than he being the son of Yadav chieftain Lalu Prasad, has been his unsuccessful foray into cricket.

Another party veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who was expected to become the Assembly speaker, has been given the all-important finance ministry. Tejawi will become Deputy Chief Minister.

Born in 1951 at Bakhtiyarpur in Patna district to an Ayurvedic physician and Congress leader, Nitish Kumar plunged into politics in the early 1970s at a time when Bihar was in ferment.

Seven more ministers can be accommodated in the cabinet as under the constitutional provision a maximum of 15 per cent ministers of the total strength of the house is allowed. Along with him, two sons of Lalu Sabha Prasad, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap also sworn in.

The Grand Alliance won 178 of the 243 seats in the Bihar assembly.

This is the fifth time that Nitish is taking oath as Chief Minister.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi declining to attend the event, he and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which badly lost the Bihar assembly polls, was represented by party leaders and central ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Tejaswi Yadav has been appointed as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. This time, he is heading an alliance government with the RJD and Congress. He also said that participation in the government was not his priority, the Congress’ main focus should be on how to rebuild the party in Bihar.

Tejaswi and Tej Pratap arrived together for the first meeting of the state Cabinet today at state secretariate.

Referring to the presence of leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Aravind Kejriwal and senior leaders such as Farooq Abdulla, Sharad Yadav and D. Raja, the DMK leader inferred that it had a deeper significance and was not merely a guest-gracing occasion.

Other RJD ministers who have been key portfolios include Alok Kumar Mehta (cooperative), Chandrika Rai (transport), Ram Vichar Rai (agriculture), Vijay Prakash (labour resources), Anita Devi (tourism), Shivchandra Ram (art, culture and youth), Abdul Ghafoor (minority welfare), Chandrashekhar (disaster management) and Muneshwar Choudhary (mines and geology). Manju Varma, Madan Sahni, Shailesh Kumar and Kapildeo Kamat were among those tipped for ministerial berths.