Nitish stakes claim to form Bihar government

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bhartiya Janata Party's outgoing president L K Advani would be among the distinguished guests who would be present when Nitish Kumar takes the oath of office and secrecy as the new chief minister of Bihar at 12.30 PM at Gandhi Maiden in Patna on Thursday. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, spokesman of the BJP parliamentary party, disclosed this. The two would fly to Patna on Thursday morning.

Nitish Kumar who was elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance in Patna on Wednesday evening went to see governor Buta Singh along with Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP who would take over as the deputy chief minister in the new dispensation and other senior leaders of the BJP and the Janata Dal United to stake the claim for the formation of the government in Bihar.

Buta Singh invited Nitish Kumar to form the government and the time for swearing in was fixed according to the convenience of the chief minister in waiting.

"I do not know about others who would be present during the swearing in ceremony but Atalji and Advaniji would definitely be there. Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United), Venkaiah Naidu, vice president of the party and Arun Jaitley are already there," Malhotra said.

Though invitations have been extended to the former chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana it is not yet known whether or not Chandrababu Naidu, Prakash Singh Badal and Om Prakash Chautala would be able to make it to Patna for the ceremony.

According to sources eight Janata Dal ministers including chief minister Nitish Kumar would take the oath while governor Buta Singh would swear in four ministers including Sushil Modi from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Also see: Lalu out, Nitish in