NEW DELHI: The new Bihar government is expected to be sworn-in on Thursday (November 20). Nitish Kumar, who is likely to continue as CM, is expected to resign on Wednesday to begin the transition process. It will be a new 20-strong ministries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Days after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) bagged a thumping victory in the 2025 state assembly elections, Bihar is all set to get a new government on Thursday November 20 after the current government dissolves on November 19. Nitish Kumar will resign as the chief minister of Bihar on Wednesday, November 19, to kickstart the formal process of forming a new government.
Apart from the prime minister, several top NDA leaders, including union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan, are expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
As many as 20 ministers are likely to take oath with the CM, around 6-7 ministers each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the JD(U), according to a report in The Indian Express. There will also be two ministers from the LJP (RV) and one each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) who will take oath along with Kumar on Thursday,
Nitish Kumar’s swearing-in ceremony at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan on November 20, in the presence of dignitaries from across the country, will not be the first event of such scale. Of the four times he has taken oath after elections since 2005, three ceremonies have been held at Gandhi Maidan, a venue that has witnessed major political gatherings since the pre-Independence era.
The upcoming oath-taking ceremony — his 10th overall — will mark the fourth such event at the same ground. Only in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was the ceremony held as a low-key affair at the Raj Bhawan.
People vote for parties that fulfil their aspirations and the recent Bihar assembly polls have shown that when governments prioritise development, voters put their faith in them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
He said the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal had “betrayed” the people. Instead of focusing on development, he said, it opted for the misrule of “Jungle Raj”, using a term used by critics for the law and order record of the previous RJD-led government.
“…Another thing that stood out was that nobody can overlook the increasing participation of people in democracy. There was the highest voter turnout in the history of elections in Bihar. Women turnout was about 9% more than the male turnout. This also is the victory of democracy,” the PM said.
Ahead of the government formation in Bihar, JD (U) leaders Sanjay Jha and Lalan Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi at his residence. BJP president J P Nadda was present at the closed-door meeting, which lasted about three hours.
Sources said the meeting discussed the NDA’s preparations for government formation in Bihar, including the allocation of ministerial portfolios to NDA constituents in the new government and the candidate for the Assembly Speaker’s post.
Arif Mohammad would be the eight Governor to administer the oath of office to Nitish Kumar over the past two and a half decades. VC Pande administered his first oath in 2000, while Arif Mohammad Khan will officiate on November 20, 2025. In the intervening years, Buta Singh, Devanand Konwar, Ram Nath Kovind, Keshri Nath Tripathi, Fagu Chauhan and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar have each administered the oath at various times, with Tripathi and Chauhan doing so twice due to the frequent political realignments after 2015.
The Election Commission on Tuesday dismissed senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh’s allegation that each EVM used in the Bihar polls had 25,000 votes even before polling, saying it is “technically impossible” and “procedurally false” as also contradicted by statutory records signed by RJD’s own election and polling agents.
“EVMs have no WiFi, Bluetooth, internet, or any external connectivity, making remote or digital tampering impossible. Before polling, each EVM displays ‘0’ votes for every candidate, and a mandatory mock poll is conducted in the presence of all political party agents, after which all mock votes are cleared and a mock poll certificate is jointly signed,” the EC statement added.
BJP leader Lakhendra Paswan, after NDA’s thumping victory in Bihar assembly polls, said, “I express my gratitude for the overwhelming majority. We were contesting the elections on the basis of development. Under the guidance of PM Modi and CM Nitish Kumar, the NDA government in Bihar has brought development. This is on the basis of development only; today, the people have given a mandate in Bihar with an overwhelming majority, and the NDA government is going to be formed.“
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) held a meeting in Patna on Monday to evaluate the party’s poor performance in the Bihar Assembly election, which saw the Mahagathbandhan fold at 35 seats, with the RJD winning 25 of them.
Following the meeting, RJD leaders stated that the party is “unable to digest” the mandate, which elected the NDA alliance with 202 seats out of 243, and blamed “vote theft” and “misuse of EVMs” in the election.
RJD leader Shakti Singh Yadav said, “In the review meeting, party chief (Lalu Yadav), former CM Rabri Devi ji, senior leaders, including Jagadanand Singh and Uday Narayan Singh ji, expressed their views on the public mandate. It is clear that neither the public nor the political parties can digest the mandate that has been delivered.”
“This mandate has come from machinery management. 90% strike rate is not possible for any political party in the world,” he added.
