Nitish-Tejaswi government sworn in Bihar in a major swap operation

Patna: New alliance of Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal took oath of office in Bihar, marking changes of political fortunes of the state’s 10.50 crore population, just in 24-hours. Nitish Kumar, adorned by his followers with epithets as ‘Sushashan Babu’, ‘Paltu Ram’ and likes decided to re-build bridges with Lalu Yadav’s clan, facing numerous cases on fodder scam etc.

The two parties have a history of make-ups and break-ups during the last 25 years or more. JDU’s Tejaswi Yadav was re-installed as Dy Chief Minister, the post he lost in 2020, a repeat of old permutations.

The State governor Phagu Chauhan administered the oath of office to new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (for 8th term), followed by his deputy Tejaswi Yadav, rechristened as Dy. Chief Minister later. Nitish Kumar, as outgoing CM had submitted support letters of 164 MLAs, surpassing the required numbers of 122 in a 243-member house, having support of RJD (79), JDU (43), Congress (19) and some smaller groups i the Bihar Assembly.

The swapping of alliances in the state will have some immediate shock impact of NDA’s strengths, though the Central Govt. will have stability issue in Lok Sabha, though Rajya Sabha the ruling NDA will be losing its majority.