Patna: Nitish Kumar on Friday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for a third straight term at the head of a 29-member Cabinet, including Lalu Prasad's son Tejaswi as Deputy CM, in the presence of predominantly non-BJP leaders that could indicate possible future alignments.
Tej Pratap, Prasad's another victorious son in the elections, was among those who were sworn in by Governor Ram Nath Kovind at a grand function in the Gandhi Maidan in which 12 ministers each from JDU and RJD and four from Congress were inducted. Both the sons of the RJD leader are first-time MLAs.
While Kumar retained Home, Information and Publicity and General Administration departments with him, he gave Road Construction and Buildings Construction portfolio to 26-year- old Tejaswi, his Deputy CM. Tej Pratap has been given Health. Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui has been entrusted with the Finance portfolio.
In an indication of his place in the order of pecking, Tejaswi followed the chief minister in oath taking as his parents Lalu and Rabri Devi, both former chief ministers, watched amidst full-throated cheers from the RJD activists in the gathering.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, whose party was also a major beneficiary of the grand alliance, Minister HD West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, National Conference leaders and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar and AIUDF leader from Assam Badaruddin Ajmal were among those present at the ceremony.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who was deputed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was also present. A number of Congress chief ministers including Virbhadra Singh (Himachal Pradesh), Oommen Chandy (Kerala), Tarun Gogoi (Assam) and Siddaramiah (Karnataka) (CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, DMK's MK Stalin and TR Baalu also attended the event.
Some allies of BJP Akali Dal Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal (Akali Dal) and Ram Das Kadam and Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena) were also present.
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