NDA plans a November 20 swearing‑in at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan with Nitish Kumar set to take oath as the Chief Minister for the record tenth time.
Patna: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP and the JDU is reportedly set to stage a grand swearing-in ceremony on November 20 at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan. The oath-taking of Bihar’s next government is shaping up to be one of the most talked‑about political developments after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal United (JDU)-led alliance registered a sweeping victory in the recently concluded assembly elections in Bihar.
According to the sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with other senior leaders and Union ministers of the BJP, are likely to attend the ceremony. Earlier, a few reports suggested the possibility of the oath‑taking being held on either November 19 or 20, based on a final go-ahead from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Sources also suggested citing a senior JDU leader that Nitish Kumar is likely to return as the chief minister for a record tenth term in Bihar on November 20. The JDU leader also added that the Election Commission will deliver the official list of the newly elected assembly members to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan by Sunday evening, marking the first formal step toward the transition .
After the historic victory of the NDA in Bihar, the machinery of government formation is already in full swing. The outgoing cabinet is slated to hold its final meeting on Monday, after which Nitish Kumar will meet the Governor at the Raj Bhavan in Patna to tender his resignation and later, claim the support of MLAs to form the new government. The NDA is speeding up to wrap up the government formation process as the Bihar assembly’s term is set to expire on November 22.
The sources also claimed that following the resignation of the CM, the alliance’s legislators will gather for a series of meetings. On Monday and Tuesday, the various NDA partners will convene separately to elect their own leaders, and then reconvene in a joint session to decide the coalition’s overall head. Once the decision is finalised, Nitish Kumar will submit a joint letter of support to the governor, formally staking his claim to form the next government .
The Cabinet composition is also being finalised by the top think tanks of the alliance. A BJP leader explained that ministerial berths will be allocated according to the long‑standing “one minister for every six seats” formula, a method that has guided coalition arithmetic in Bihar for years. The BJP, under this arrangement, is expected to receive around fifteen to sixteen portfolios, the JD(U) about fourteen, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) three, and smaller allies such as the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) one each .
Notably, the NDA has secured 202 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, a decisive mandate that set the stage for the NDA to return to power in the state. On the other hand, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the opposition party, has been reduced to its lowest-ever tally of just 25 seats.
As the city of Patna prepares for the grand oath-taking ceremony, the thousands of NDA workers are cheering and gearing up for the upcoming event. For Nitish Kumar, it will be the tenth time he steps onto the podium to take oath as the chief minister of Bihar.
