Nitish Kumar Set to Form New Bihar Government as NDA Clears Decks after Landslide Win

 Decks were being cleared on Sunday for the formation of a new government in Bihar with the scheduling of the last meeting of the outgoing cabinet, which would, understandably, authorise Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take necessary action.

According to a notification of the cabinet secretariat department, the council of ministers will meet on Monday, when, according to a senior JD(U) leader, a resolution will be passed to "authorise" Kumar to meet the governor with the proposal to dissolve the outgoing assembly.

The development came on a day Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Singh Gunjiyal met Governor Arif Mohammed Khan with a list of the members elected in the recently held assembly polls, results of which were announced on Friday.

The NDA won a brute majority, bagging more than 200 seats of the 243-strong assembly, with BJP winning the maximum of 89 seats, followed by the JD(U)'s tally of 85, while Union minister Chirag Paswan’s LJP(RV) bagged 19, and another nine were won by smaller partners HAM and RLM.

Meanwhile, JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, who was back from Delhi after holding parleys with the top BJP leadership over the formation of a new government in the state, called on the CM here.

Talking to reporters later, he said, "In a few days, the new government will be formed. You will get to know the details in due course. We are committed to fulfilling all the promises that we had made in the NDA's manifesto." According to a JD(U) leader who did not wish to be identified, "It is almost certain that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fly down for the swearing-in ceremony. It will be a grand function, most likely at the historical Gandhi Maidan, which can accommodate a large number of people." Notably, Modi had addressed over a dozen rallies during the assembly poll campaign and at his last election meeting, he had promised to "be back for the swearing in of a new NDA government".

The JD(U) leader also said, "We are looking forward to having a greater representation in the new cabinet, compared with the last one in which our party had only 12 ministers. We want more berths in the cabinet because our tally has risen sharply since 2020, when we had fewer than 50 MLAs." He admitted that accommodating the demands of various alliance partners will be a challenging task, given the fact that LJP(RV) and RLM happen to be new entrants.

Paswan had on Saturday replied in the affirmative whether his party was looking forward to joining the government, though he ducked a query as to whether it was eyeing the deputy CM's post.

In the outgoing government, there were two Deputy CMs, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both from the BJP.

Another minor partner, HAM, headed by state minister Santosh Kumar Suman, held a meeting of its legislative party where Sikandra MLA Prafull Manjhi was elected the leader.

Suman, who is an MLC, said, "Our full support is to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and we are looking forward to serving the people of Bihar once again." While the NDA camp was busy preparing the ground for the formation of a new government, the RJD, the main party in the opposition, seemed to be torn apart by a bitter internal feud.

Rohini Acharya, daughter of RJD president Lalu Prasad, continued to make emotionally charged posts on X and tear-filled outbursts in front of the press.

She has been alleging that following the party’s debacle, she has been “sworn at”, accused of “donating my filthy kidney to my father in exchange for crores of rupees and a party ticket” and that a slipper was raised at her parents' home to hit her.

Acharya, who claims she enjoys “full support of my parents and my sisters”, squarely blamed younger brother Tejashwi Yadav, her father’s heir apparent, and the latter’s close aides for her humiliation.

"You should go and ask Sanjay Yadav, Rachel and Rameez if you want to know what has been done to me," she told reporters in Delhi, naming an RJD Rajya Sabha MP, the wife of his younger brother and another key associate.