Nitish Kumar to attend Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony amid ongoing spat with BJP

Amid the cold war between Bihar alllies BJP and JDU, CM Nitish Kumar is set to attend UP CM Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony on Friday. Speaking to ANI, JDU leader Rajeev Ranjan confirmed Nitish's presence and lauded ally BJP on a historic re-election. Adityanath is set to be sworn in as UP CM for the 2nd time at 4 PM in Lucknow's Ikana Stadium after BJP retained India's largest seat winning 255 seats in the 403-seat Assembly.

Nitish Kumar to attend Yogi's swearing-in

"It is a historic win for Yogi ji. We wish him best of luck. People are expecting more. Bihar CM will also be present at the swearing in ceremony," said JD(U) leader Rajeev Ranjan.

Yogi's mega swearing-in ceremony

Apart from Nitish Kumar, BJP has also invited ally CMs of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Puducherry. BJP CMs set to attend the ceremony are - Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Arunachal CM Pema Khandu, Tripura CM Biplab Deb, Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Manipur CM N Biren Singh and Goa CM Pramod Sawant. Opposition leaders Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress) and Jayant Chaudhary (RLD) will skip the event.

100 BJP workers from each Assembly constituency have arrived in Lucknow to attend the event. Adityanath will take oath as the CM for the second consecutive time in the presence of PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president JP Nadda and other top party leaders. Sources report that Nitin Agrawal, Nitin Agrawal, Ashish Patel, AK Sharma, Sanjay Nishad, Brajesh Pathak, Jaivir Singh, Baldev Singh Aulakh, Jitin Prasada, Baby Rani Maurya, Suresh Khanna, Surya Pratap Shahi, Sanjeev Gaur, Pratibha Shukla, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, JPS Rathore, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and Asim Arun will be part of Yogi's new cabinet. KP Maurya is also likely to be retained as Deputy CM.

BJP-JDU's souring ties

BJP and JD(U) have been in a rocky state since Nitish Kumar lost his clout as his saffron partner overtook him in the 2020 polls. Faced with anti-incumbency, the NDA managed to eke out a majority winning 125 seats, compared to Mahagathbandhan's 110 seats with BJP betting its tally winning 74 seats. Nitish's stature was reduced as his party won only 43 seats - down from 71 in 2015. BJP further asserted its dominance, with shifting Nitish's preferred deputy - Sushil Modi to the Rajya Sabha and installing two deputy CMs - 4-time MLAs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi instead.

Recently, BJP took a lion's share in the cabinet and will contest on 13 of the 24 Bihar legislative council seats as opposed to JDU's 8 seats. BJP also became the single-largest party in Bihar after VIP MLAs Raju Singh, Mishrilal Yadav and Swarna Singh joined BJP, taking it tally to 77 seats. Nitish has also bowed to BJP after publically sparring with Bihar Speaker Vijay Sinha over police's alleged misbehaviour with Sinha in Lakhisarai, by replacing Lakhisarai DSP Ranjan Kumar with Syed Imran Masood.