Nitish Kumar elected head of NDA legislature party

PATNA - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whom Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislators earlier in the day elected to lead them in the state assembly, was Thursday unanimously elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) legislature party here.

Soon after he was elected leader of the JD-U legislature party and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi was elected leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party here, the combined meeting of the JD-U and BJP legislators elected Nitish Kumar leader of the NDA group in the 15th Bihar assembly.

“Nitish Kumar was elected at a meeting of the newly elected party legislators of JD-U and BJP in the presence of JD-U president Sharad Yadav and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley,” a JD-U leader said.

Later, the NDA leaders, including Nitish, would hand over letters of support of the legislators of two parties to the governor and stake claim to form the government in the state late Thursday.

Nitish Kumar will take oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the second time Friday.

Sources close to Nitish Kumar say that a ministry of 35 members with 20 from the JD-U and 15 from the BJP would also be sworn in Friday.

The NDA combine swept the Bihar assembly polls with the JD-U winning 115 seats and the BJP 91 seats in the 243-member house.