Nitish stakes claim to form Bihar govt again

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday staked claim to form the next government in Bihar after being elected the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), setting the stage for his 10th oath-taking ceremony scheduled at 11.30am on Thursday.

- Vijay Swaroop and Arun Kumar

The developments came ona day the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) elected Samrat Choudhary as its legislature party leader and Vijay Kumar Sinha as the deputy leader, indicating that the two leaders will continue to be deputy chief ministers in the state.

Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda landed in Patna on Wednesday evening and held a meeting with leaders of the JD(U) and other allies, aiming to iron out differences between the coalition partners on niggling issues such as the home and education portfolio and the position of speaker, people aware of the developments said.

The NDA stormed to power in Bihar in the recently concluded assembly polls, winning 202 seats in the 243-member assembly, with the BJP bagging 89, the JD(U) 85, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 19, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) five and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha four.

Kumar, 75, first resigned as CM and then submitted the proposal to stake claim to governor Arif Mohammed Khan, carrying a letter of support from all NDA partners. Choudhary, Sinha, LJP (RV) chief Chirag Paswan, HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi and RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha accompanied him to the Raj Bhavan in an exhibition of the NDA cohesion.