Nitish Kumar sworn in Bihar Chief Minister

     Patna: National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Bihar. This is the second time he has become the chief minister. Bharatiya Janaya Party (BJP) state chief Sushil Modi took oath as Deputy Chief Minister, besides 25 other NDA leaders - 15 will hold Cabinet rank and 10 State rank, at a swearing-in ceremony which took place at 12.30 at the Gandhi Maidan here. Nitish and Modi along with the 25 ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Buta Singh.

    Among those who were present on the occasion were former Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP president LK Advani, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, BJP leaders Uma Bharti, M Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitely and Navjot Singh Siddhu, Digvijay Singh and Rajnath Singh. JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav, George Fernandes, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah also attended the function. Governor Buta Singh had on Wednesday invited Nitish Kumar to form a government here after he staked claim following NDA's emergence as the majority party with 143 seats out of 243 in the over month long four-phased assembly polls. After the clean sweep, the NDA had unanimously elected the JD(U) chief as the leader of legislature party. Interestingly, neither Chief Minister Nitish nor his deputy Modi is member of the Assembly. The Chief Minister is a Member of Parliament from Barh, while Modi represents Bhagalpur.

'Nitish Kumar will make Bihar a shining state'

     Bihar's electorate created history on Tuesday, finally ending 15 years of political domination by Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and ushering in a new administration that will be led by his long-time rival Nitish Kumar. The victory of Janata Dal (U) brings a new ray of hope and optimism to the people of Bihar. "The people of Bihar wanted that there should be law and order in the State, there should be development in every sector, road conditions should be improved. In the past 15 years, Bihar has seen only darkness and terror," said Prem Chand Kumar, a resident of Patna. Jai Narayan Yadav, another resident of Patna said that people have lots of expectations from the new government. "I hope that Nitish Kumar will do a good job. He has proved himself as a competent Railway Minister in the past. We can only wait and watch," said Yadav. Pankaj Kumar stressed that the priority of the new government should be to restore law and order situation. "We have lots of hope and expectations from him (Nitish Kumar). People of Bihar have voted against 15 years of misrule, and priority of the new government should be to restore law and order situation in the state and bring back the wheel of development on track," said Kumar.

    Conveying his best regards to the new government, Punit Yadav, another citizen of Patna said that a lot was expected from Nitish Kumar and hoped that he would make Bihar a shining state. "Every citizen of Bihar wanted that there should be security of life and property. We need good roads and infrastructure. The problems of the commonman should come to an end now. We convey our best regards to the new Government. And I hope they will not disappoint the people and turn Bihar into a 'shining state' of India," said Yadav. In a stunning verdict, voters who only eight months ago delivered a badly hung 243-member Bihar Assembly gave the alliance of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and BJP an easy win in the staggered elections that concluded on Saturday. NDA combine of JD(U)-BJP has secured a win in 143 seats out of 243. The RJD alliance has bagged 65 while LJP and others have secured 14 and 18 seats, respectively.