Nitish Kumar to be Bihar CM for 7th time

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday elected Nitish Kumar as their leader at a meeting in Patna. The meeting started at 12:30 pm and was attended by  NDA leaders. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was present at the meeting, announced that Kumar has been elected as the leader of the NDA in Bihar. The NDA leaders further decided that Sushil Modi will be the BJP legislature party leader in Bihar. Earlier,  the NDA meeting, the Janata Dal (United) had also elected Nitish Kumar as the legislature party leader in a separate meeting. Kumar was declared the ruling coalition’s chief ministerial candidate much before the election process had started. Kumar had tendered his resignation to state Governor Phagu Chauhan on Friday so that the process to form the new government can begin. Swearing-in ceremony will take place on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which fought the Bihar Assembly election along with the JD(U) as part of NDA, had promised that Kumar will be the chief minister if the alliance wins the electoral battle. Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) were other constituents of NDA in Bihar. While the BJP won 74 seats in the election, the JD(U) secured 43. Eight seats were won by other two NDA constituents. The NDA had crossed the halfway mark in the 243-member Assembly by winning 125 seats.