Shortly after Nitish Kumar took oath, a record ninth time, as Bihar Chief Minister with BJP as its partner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out congratulations to the new Bihar team and the Chief Minister.
Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha, from the BJP, are Nitish Kumar's new deputies.
"The NDA government formed in Bihar will leave no stone unturned for the development of the state and to fulfil the aspirations of its people. Congratulate @NitishKumar ji on becoming Chief Minister and Samrat Chaudhary ji and Vijay Sinha ji on taking oath as Deputy Chief Ministers," Mr Modi posted on X in Hindi.
"I am confident that this team will serve my family members of the state with full dedication. @samrat4bjp @VijayKrSinhaBih," the Prime Minister added.
The Chief Minister has thanked the Prime Minister for his wishes and cooperation, underscoring that serving people is his government's sole objective.
"On my own behalf and on behalf of all the people of Bihar, I express my gratitude to Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for his congratulations and good wishes and thank him wholeheartedly for his cooperation. A new government has been formed in Bihar with the NDA alliance. The public is the master and serving them is our basic objective. With the NDA coalition government at the Centre and the state, development work will gain momentum and the people of the state will benefit @narendramodi," responded Nitish Kumar.
However, the new realignment in Bihar and Nitish Kumar's fifth political U-turn in a decade has earned him the moniker "paltumaar or "paltu Kumar"". 'Paltumar' means someone who keeps shifting his stand.
"I have been saying this since the beginning that Nitish Kumar can swap anytime. This has become a part of his politics. But today's developments have shown that all parties and leaders in Bihar are 'paltumaars'," said poll strategist Prashant Kishor, not sparing the BJP, tagging them also as "paltumaars".
The BJP, said the poll ace, had declared that its doors are shut for Mr Kumar. "The BJP leaders verbally abusing Nitish Kumar yesterday will now hail him as a symbol of good governance. RJD, which was calling him a leader for the future, will see corruption in Bihar today," he said.
Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's deputy Chief Minister until a few hours ago, termed his ex boss and ally, Nitish Kumar, a "tired Chief Minister", as the latter pulled a big switcheroo and joined hands with the BJP again.
"It seems we made a tired CM (chief minister) work. The game is not over yet," Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, told reporters.
Explaining his big move, Nitish Kumar, 72, told reporters in Patna," The new Grand Alliance that we created (in August 2022) is not in a good condition. The situation is not looking good."
Mr Kumar also dissed the Opposition bloc INDIA, which was engineered by him.
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