A look at his cabinet with 6 new faces, who will be deputy CM?
Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar will return as Bihar Chief Minister for the 10th time tomorrow after taking oath at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan, where Jayaprakash Narayan called for “total revolution” during a speech. Kumar staked his claim to form the government in Bihar after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept 202 assembly constituencies. Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Wednesday accepted his resignation and asked him to continue as interim CM until the new government takes oath tomorrow, November 20.
Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar will return as Bihar Chief Minister for the 10th time tomorrow after taking oath at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan, where Jayaprakash Narayan called for “total revolution” during a speech. Kumar staked his claim to form the government in Bihar after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept 202 assembly constituencies. Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Wednesday accepted his resignation and asked him to continue as interim CM until the new government takes oath tomorrow, November 20.
Nitish Kumar’s cabinet: Who will be the Deputy CM?
According to sources close to news agency PTI, the NDA partners reached consensus on key positions. BJP’s Prem Kumar is likely to be the next Speaker of the Bihar assembly. The Vice President post is expected to go to JD(U). The new Cabinet will include five to six new faces from the alliance’s two main constituents, the BJP and JD(U), as well as representation from smaller partners.
The new Bihar Cabinet is expected to have three-bed LJP (RV), one-bed HAM and one-bed RLM. The BJP and JD(U) will have 16 and 14 ministers respectively, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. JD(U) contestants include Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Shrowan Kumar and Lesi Singh. The BJP is expected to retain most of the outgoing ministers, including Samrat Choudhary, Prem Kumar and Mangal Pandey, and make a few new additions like Anand Mishra and Gayatri Devi.
On the deputy chief minister, sources close to ABP suggest that Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, who served as Nitish Kumar’s aides in the previous regime, are likely to remain in key roles. While Chaudhary was elected party leader in the BJP legislature, Sinha became deputy leader. Along with Mangal Pandey, they are being considered for senior posts, including Deputy Prime Minister.
Nitish Kumar elected as NDA’s legislative leader
A day before the swearing-in ceremony, Nitish Kumar was unanimously elected as the legislative leader of the NDA. He was also elected leader of the JD(U) legislative party in a meeting held at his residence in Patna. Kumar’s aides Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha along with the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or [LJP (RV)] Chief Chirag Paswan and Bihar Bharatriya Janata Party (BJP) chief Dilip Kumar Jaiswal were also present at the event. The 2025 Bihar assembly elections ended with the NDA winning 202 seats. Of the 202 assembly constituencies, the BJP won 89 seats and Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) won 85 seats.
(With inputs from ANI)
