Nitish Kumar to take oath today, suspense over Deputy CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive time today. He will take oath on Monday at half past four. The NDA, a coalition of four parties in Bihar, elected him its leader on Sunday.

According to media reports there is still doubt about the post of Deputy Chief Minister and it is possible that two Deputy Chief Ministers will be sworn in in Bihar.

The newspaper has written that this could be because Nitish Kumar's ally Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday elected two of its MLAs as leaders and deputy leaders of the party.

Katihar MLA Tarkishore Prasad has been elected as the Leader of the Party Legislative Party and Renu Devi, the MLA from Bettiah.

The newspaper has written that senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was the deputy chief minister of Nitish Kumar since 2017, may get a new responsibility in the central government.

The NDA coalition has got the most seats in the Bihar Assembly elections on November 10. NDA came in majority with 125 seats.

However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged as the largest party. The party has won 75 seats in the state.

On Sunday, Kumar along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) leaders held meetings discussing the probable size of the cabinet.

People aware of the developments said there are chances the JD(U) having 43 MLAs could get 12 ministerial berths while the BJP having 74 MLAs could get 18 ministers with one ministerial berth to be allotted to both Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

The number of ministers could be increased in coming months, the people cited above added.

According to NDA leaders, the allocation of ministerial berths to allies is being done on the formula of allotting two berths for every seven seats the party has won.

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