text: On January 28, 2024 Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post and left the mahagathbandhan alliance with Lalu Yadav’s RJD and the Congress, to return back to the BJP-led NDA fold.
  Now, Mr. Kumar has taken oath as the CM with support from the BJP.
  Along with Mr. Kumar, BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha, Samrat Choudhary and Prem Kumar took oath as Ministers in the new government.
  JD(U) members Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Vijendra Yadav and Shrawan Kumar also took oath in addition to former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustan Awam Morcha’s Santosh Kumar Suman and independent legislator Sumit Singh.
  Other members of the Council of Ministers will be decided in a day or two, sources said.
  Earlier in the day, Mr. Kumar resigned as Chief Minister, saying ‘things were not working well’ for him in the Mahagathbandhan and in the INDIA bloc.
  Mr Kumar then staked claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.
  BJP president J.P. Nadda and other senior party leaders were present at the swearing-in ceremony, whereas RJD boycotted the event, and the Congress remained absent.
  The JD(U) supremo first took oath as the State’s Chief Minister back in 2000, but his government fell within a week.
  In May 2014, he stepped down but returned to the top post eight months later, going over protege Jitan Ram Manjhi in November 2015, when the coalition of the JD(U), RJD and Congress won the Assembly elections.
  Three years later, he resigned to form a new government with the BJP, which he has now repeated.
  After the 2020 assembly polls, which the NDA won, Kumar returned as CM, but the JD(U) performed poorly.
  In 2022, he walked out and became the chief minister with the JD(U)-RJD Mahagathbandhan combine.
  In less than two years, he has now gone back to the NDA, his fifth political turnaround since November 2005.
  The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members and this will be Kumar’s 9th time as CM.
  PM Modi congratulated Nitish Kumar as he took oath and said the NDA government will leave no stone unturned for the development in Bihar.
  BJP president JP Nadda said Nitish Kumar’s coming back to the NDA fold is a ‘matter of happiness.’
  ‘The people of Bihar in 2020 gave the mandate to the NDA and Nitish Kumar is NDA’s natural ally,’ Nadda said adding that the NDA will sweep the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.
  Former deputy CM, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD said the ‘game is not over’ in Bihar.
  While Lalu Prasad Yadav and RJD seem to have suffered a big blow, Tejashwi Yadav took the blow in his stride, saying the JD(U) will be finished in 2024, adding that Nitish Kumar was a ‘tired chief minister’.
  Lalu Prasad Yadav to be questioned by ED
  Lalu Prasad Yadav will appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday (January 29) for questioning in connection to the alleged land-for-job scam.
  Lalu Yadav reached the probe agency’s office in Patna at around 11:00 am.
  A team of ED officials from Delhi also reached Patna late on Sunday evening to question the RJD leader in connection with the case.
  ‘The Patna team along with the Patna ED director and ED team from Delhi can question Lalu Yadav at around 11 am,’ sources added.
  The ED on January 19 issued a fresh summons to Yadav and his son Tejashw in connection with the land-for-job case. The summon notice was physically handed over by ED at former CM Rabri Devi’s residence on 10 Circular Road in Patna.
  Later on January 27, a Delhi court issued a summons to former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, her daughters, and others in an alleged money laundering case related to the scam.
  The court asked Rabri Devi and her daughters to physically appear before it on February 9
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