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Patna, November 20 (IANS) Union Minister Anupriya Patel congratulated the newly formed NDA government in Bihar and said that the double engine government will work for the development of the state and fulfill all the demands of the people.
Speaking to IANS, Union Minister Anupriya Patel said, “I want to congratulate CM Nitish Kumar and his cabinet. I want to express my gratitude to the people of Bihar for giving a big mandate to the NDA. Certainly, when people give a mandate, they have big expectations from the government. People have big expectations from our government. I want to assure the people of Bihar that this double engine government will work for the development of the state and fulfill all the demands.”
Earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar after Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Gandhi Maidan in Patna.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Patna airport around 11 am and flew straight to the venue by helicopter to attend the ceremony.
At 11:30 am, Nitish Kumar took oath as Chief Minister for the 10th time. He first became Chief Minister in 2000, although his government lasted only seven days.
Since returning to power in 2005, he has taken oath nine consecutive times, reaching a historic tenth oath on Thursday. This is also the first time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attended the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar.
Samrat Chaudhary took oath immediately after Nitish Kumar. The victorious MLA from Tarapur, he has now taken charge as one of the Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar.
After this, Vijay Sinha took oath and also took over the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Several ministers were also administered the oath alongside Nitish Kumar, including Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Mangal Pandey, Dilip Jaiswal, Shravan Kumar, Bijendra Yadav, Lacey Singh, Nitin Naveen, Madan Sahani, Ram Kripal Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Sunil Kumar, Jama Khan, Sanjay Tiger, Arun Shankar, Rama Nishad, Surendra Mehta, Narayan Prasad, and Ashok Choudhary.
After the ceremony, the Prime Minister congratulated all the newly sworn-in ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday followed a day of intense political activity after Nitish Kumar visited the Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the new government. He submitted letters of support from 202 NDA MLAs and tendered his resignation as the outgoing Chief Minister. Governor Arif Mohammad Khan later dissolved the 17th Bihar Legislative Assembly and invited them to form a new government.
Earlier, Nitish Kumar was elected the JDU legislature party leader, while the BJP elected Samrat Choudhary as the legislature party leader and Vijay Sinha as its deputy leader. Both the leaders took oath as Deputy Chief Ministers, marking the beginning of the new NDA government in Bihar.
–IANS
JK/DPB