Venkaiah Naidu to represent PM Modi at Nitish oath

R K Singh, the Ara MP who had accused the party of giving tickets to people with criminal background, was recently summoned by BJP general secretary Ramlal, triggering the speculation that the party may take a few disciplinary action against a few leaders.

The BJP, by making Mr Modi and not a local leader the face its election campaign, turned the Bihar election into a battle between PM Modi and Nitish Kumar, arch political rivals for many years.

Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister on a massive stage at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Friday, reports said.

JD(U) minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav who held Finance ministry in the outgoing Nitish Kumar cabinet, will look after energy department now.

Union minister Venkaiah Naidu who also arrived here for the ceremony extended the support of the government for Bihar’s development.

Tejwasi Yadav has been named the deputy chief minister and will be in charge of road construction and building construction departments, the sources said.

RJD had won 80 seats in the Bihar poll followed by JD(U) with 71 and Congress 27, adding up to 178 in the 243-member Legislative Assembly.

Nitish Kumar belongs to the Janata Dal (United) party.

He entered the Lok Sabha in 1989 and went on to win five Parliamentary elections from Bihar as his popularity soared.

A few allies of BJP Akali Dal Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal (Akali Dal)and Ram Das Kadam and Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena) were also present. He will head the first JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition to rule Bihar.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also attended the ceremony. The ceremony was administered by Governor Ramnath Kovind.

The event is expected to draw a galaxy of top political leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Naveen Patnaik of Odisha and Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh. RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s sons, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav took oath of office after Nitish Kumar’s swearing in. He has also been given the additional responsibility of three ministries.