Lalu’s son Tejaswi Prasad made Deputy CM, while elder son Tej Pratap is the health minister
Patna: Nitish Kumar Friday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister along with 28 ministers, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s two sons Tejaswi and Tej Pratap, as the grand alliance government of RJD-JD(U)-Congress was sworn in at a mega ceremony at Gandhi Maidan attended by several top leaders of non-BJP parties. This is the fifth time that Nitish is taking oath as Chief Minister.
Besides Nitish, 12 members each from RJD and JD(U) and four from Congress were administered oath as ministers by Governor Ram Nath Kovind. Tejaswi Yadav has been made the Deputy Chief Minister, while Tej Pratap is the health minister, official sources said.
A galaxy of leaders, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and a number of Congress Chief Ministers were present at the ceremony of the new Bihar government. Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who was deputed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was also present. CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja also attended the event.
The others who took oath from JD(U) besides Nitish include former JD(U) state president Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar and Jay Kumar Singh, all members of the outgoing cabinet, besides former MP Maheshwar Hazari, Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma, Santosh Nirala and Khurshid alias Firoz Ahmad. New members in the cabinet from JD(U) Shailesh Kumar, Kumari Manju Varma, Madan Sahni and Kapildeo Kamat also took oath.
From RJD, besides Lalu’s sons, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Abdul Gafoor, Vijay Prakash, Chandrika Rai, Alok Kumar Mehta, Ram Vichar Rai, Sheo Chander Ram, Muneshwar Chaudhary, Chandrashekhjar and Anita Devi took oath.
From the Congress, party chief Ashok Choudhary, Madan Mohan Jha, Abdul Jalil Mastan and Awdesh Kumar Singh were sworn in.
RJD had won 80 seats in the Bihar poll, followed by JD(U) 71 and Congress 27 in the 243-member Legislative Assembly.
As per constitutional provision of cabinet quota being fixed at 15 per cent of the House strength, Nitish Kumar could have a maximum of 36 members, including himself, in the ministry. PTI