Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony likely to take place at 5pm: Report

The swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar is likely to take place at 5 pm today. Kumar on Sunday resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar, thus, bringing down the RJD-JDU government in the state. Nitish Kumar will form the government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, India Today reported citing sources aware of the matter. 

The BJP is likely to have two deputy Chief Ministers with Sushil Kumar Modi being one of them and the second name is yet to be finalised. Preparations for the swearing-in ceremony at the Bihar Raj Bhawan have begun in full swing. Bihar governor Rajendra Arlekar has accepted Kumar's resignation and asked him to continue as caretaker CM till the new government is formed.

"Today, I have resigned as the Chief Minister and I have also told the Governor to dissolve the government in the state," Kumar told reporters. While explaining the reason behind his resignation, Kumar said the political situation in the state occurred since "not everything was alright".

"Today, I have resigned as the Chief Minister and I have also told the Governor to dissolve the government in the state. This situation came because not everything was alright... I was getting views from everyone. I listened to all of them. Today, the government has been dissolved," he said. The development came hours after Nitish Kumar told Janata Dal United or JD(U) MLAs at a meeting that he will meet the Governor shortly to hand in his resignation. 

Commenting on Nitish Kumar's resignation, Union Minister Giriraj Singh told news agency ANI that the BJP would not allow jungle raj to prevail in Bihar. 

"I thank Nitish Kumar that he has resigned. Whatever be his compulsion, Bihar was perplexed if there was a Jungle Raj 2-like situation in 1.5 years. Had Tejashwi Yadav sat on the seat (CM position), it would have been very difficult...I was concerned about just one thing now, I was apprehensive that with the kind of pressure that Lalu Yadav was putting on him for the 'tajposhi' of Tejashwi - Bihar would have had a jungle raj again. It is free of this now. BJP won't allow jungle raj in Bihar..."

Setbacks for the INDIA alliance 

Nitish's resignation as Bihar CM and subsequent return to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a triple whammy for the INDIA alliance. The first setback for the alliance came when Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee said that she will not contest jointly with the grand old Congress in West Bengal. 

The second setback for the INDIA alliance came when Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced that the AAP will contest all the 13 seats in Punjab. 

Bihar's political dynamics

Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is the largest political party in Bihar with 79 seats, followed by the BJP with 78 seats. Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United has 45 MLAs whereas the Congress has 19. The Left parties, on the other hand, have 14 seats.

Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular), which is with the BJP, has four MLAs. With the JD (U), the BJP and the HAM (S) can easily go past the halway mark of 122 in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. Bihar sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha. 

Also Read: Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM in big setback for INDIA bloc, to form govt with BJP