STAFF REPORTER / PATNA
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Bihar chief minister for 7th time and fourth straight term today at a ceremony which was attended by the top BJP leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda.
14 other ministers were also sworn in along with Mr Kumar. Out of them, seven are from BJP, five from JD (U) and one each from Vikassheel Insaan Party( VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).
BJP legislature party leader Tarkishore Prasad and Deputy leader Renu Devi have been made the new Deputy Chief Ministers.
Other ministers from BJP are Mangal Pandey, Ram Surat Kumar, Jivesh Kumar, Rampreet Paswan and Amarendra Pratap Singh.
The ministers from Janta Dal (United) are Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Sheela Kumari, Ashok Kumar Chaudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Mewalal Chaudhary.
Santosh Kumar Suman of HAM and Mukesh Sahni of VIP also took oath as new ministers.
Mr. Sahni is the Chief of VIP and he is not member of the house.
He lost election from Simri Bakhtiarpur assembly seat.
BJP President J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanad Rai, Bihar BJP In- Charge Bhupendra Yadav and election in – charge Devendra Fadnavis were present at the swearing-in ceremony.
The NDA secured absolute majority by winning 125 seats in the recently held Bihar Assembly elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Nitish Kumar on taking oath as Chief Minister of Bihar.
In a tweet, the Prime Minister also congratulated all those who took oath as Ministers in the Bihar Government.
He said, the NDA family will work together for the progress of Bihar.
He assured all possible support from the Centre for the welfare of Bihar.
The BJP, which has clinched 31 more seats than the 43 pocketed by Kumar’s JD(U), is to have two deputy chief ministers.