Nitish Kumar was sworn in today as the chief minister of Bihar for the tenth time, one day after staking claim to form the new government and being elected the leader of the National Democratic Alliance. Along with him, BJP leaders Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha were among the newly elected MLAs who took oath as part of the NDA cabinet.
The NDA, led by the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a clear majority in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections by securing 202 of the 243 seats. The BJP won 89 seats and emerged as the single largest party, followed by the JD(U) with 85 seats. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won 19 seats, the Hindustani Awam Morcha won five and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the swearing-in ceremony, along with senior leaders such as Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan. Chief ministers from several NDA-ruled states were also present at the event held at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan. The ground has hosted Nitish Kumar’s previous oath ceremonies and is remembered for Jayaprakash Narayan’s famous call for total revolution in 1974.
A total of 26 ministers took oath in the new cabinet. Fourteen of them are from the BJP, eight from the JD(U), two from the LJP (Ram Vilas) and one each from HAM (Secular) and the RLM. The Cabinet includes nine new faces, including Sanjay Kumar Singh of the LJP (Ram Vilas) who defeated Tej Pratap Yadav in Mahua. Only one minister in the new cabinet is Muslim.
Nitish Kumar was elected as the leader of the JD(U) Legislature Party on Wednesday during a meeting at his official residence. Later, he was unanimously chosen as the leader of the NDA Legislature Party. He is seventy one years old and a member of the legislative council and did not contest the recent assembly polls. He is among the longest serving chief ministers in India and has been in power in Bihar for a total of nineteen years.
The NDA returned to power in the state with a sweeping victory. The BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM (Secular) and RLM together secured a strong mandate in the 243 member assembly.
