Kumar, Modi to be sworn-in as Bihar CM, Deputy CM on Friday

PATNA - Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi will begin their second consecutive terms as chief minister and deputy chief minister of Bihar on Friday after being unanimously elected leaders of the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party legislature parties on Thursday.

Kumar and Modi take charge of the administration in the state two days after the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a landslide victory in the six-phase state assembly polls, results of which were announced on November 24.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan at 2.30 p.m.

State Governor Devanand Konwar would administer oath of office and secrecy.

The 115-member JD (U) Legislature Party, at a meeting here, elected Kumar as its leader. Kumar’s name was proposed by senior party leader and Bochaha MLA Ramai Ram and seconded, among others, by Sahid Ali Khan, elected to the State Assembly from Sursand, besides state JD(U) chief Vijay Kumar Choudhary.

Modi was elected unanimously the leader of the 91-member BJP Legislature Party at a separate meeting in presence of senior party leaders, including Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Dharmendra Pradhan and state party chief C P Thakur.

Modi’s name was proposed by senior party legislator Nand Kishore Yadav and seconded by his colleagues, including Ashwini Choubey and others present at the meeting.

Addressing the newly-elected members of his party, JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav said it was an “unprecedented victory” as Nitish Kumar had tried his level best to bring to the grass-roots level the ideology of veteran socialists late Ram Manohar Lohia and late Karpoori Thakur. (ANI)