Nitish Kumar takes oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for record 10th time
After steering the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a sweeping victory in the assembly elections, Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar for a record 10th time on Thursday in Patna.
The ceremony, held at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP national president J.P. Nadda, among other senior leaders. Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office and secrecy.
Gandhi Maidan, steeped in political history for Jayaprakash Narayan’s 1974 call for a “total revolution, ” has previously hosted Kumar’s swearing-in ceremonies in 2005, 2010, and 2015.
Along with Kumar, 26 NDA legislators took oath as ministers: 14 from the BJP, 8 from JD(U), 2 from LJP (Ram Vilas), and one each from HAM(S) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Chief Ministers from several NDA-ruled states, including Nayab Singh Saini (Haryana), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland), N. Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), and Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), also attended the event.
On Wednesday, Kumar was unanimously elected leader of both the JD(U) Legislature Party and the NDA Legislature Party, paving the way for the formation of the new government. The BJP chose Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha as leader and deputy leader of its Legislature Party. Their names were proposed by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, the central observer, and endorsed unanimously.
The 2025 Bihar Assembly elections were widely seen as a crucial test for the 74-year-old Kumar, who has dominated the state’s politics for more than two decades. Except for a brief nine-month break in 2014–15, he has served continuously as Chief Minister since November 2005.
Kumar staked claim to form the government after the NDA delivered a landslide victory, winning 202 of 243 seats. This is only the second time the NDA has crossed the 200-seat mark, after securing 206 seats in 2010. He met Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Wednesday to resign and initiate the formation of the new government.
Among NDA constituents, the BJP won 89 seats, the JD(U) 85, LJP (Ram Vilas) 19, HAM(S) 5, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha 4.
On the opposition side, the RJD secured 25 seats, the Congress 6, CPI(ML)L 2, the Indian Inclusive Party 1, and CPI(M) 1. The AIMIM won 5 seats, while the BSP bagged 1.
The elections were conducted in two phases on November 6 and 11. Bihar recorded a historic 67.13 per cent voter turnout, the highest since 1951, with women voters (71.6 per cent) outnumbering men (62.8 per cent).
