Nitish Kumar gets NDA nod to continue as Bihar Chief Minister

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday elected Nitish Kumar as their leader at a meeting in Patna, paving the way for the 69-year-old to become chief minister of Bihar once again.

The NDA meeting was held at Kumar’s official residence at 1, Aney Marg, in Patna. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was also present at the meeting. The NDA leaders further decided that Sushil Modi will be the BJP legislature party leader in Bihar and the swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place on Monday.

Minutes before the NDA meeting, Kumar’s party Janata Dal (United) had elected Kumar as the legislature party leader. He will now go the Governor house to stake claim to form the government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which fought the Bihar Assembly election along with the JD(U) as part of NDA, had promised that Kumar will be the chief minister if the alliance wins the electoral battle. Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) were other constituents of NDA in Bihar.

While the BJP won 74 seats in the election, the JD(U) secured 43. Eight seats were won by other two NDA constituents. The NDA had crossed the halfway mark in the 243-member Assembly by winning 125 seats.

Kumar had tendered his resignation to state Governor Phagu Chauhan on Friday so that the process to form the new government can begin.

Earlier, at a media interaction Thursday, Kumar had said that this year’s election was not his last and that his remarks were misinterpreted. “I did not talk about retirement. In the last meeting, I always say the same thing at the last rally in every election that ‘ant bhala to sab bhala’ (all is well that ends well). If you listen to speech back and forth, everything will be clear,” the chief minister said.