RJD to boycott swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav will not attend the oath-taking ceremony of Bihar Chief Minister-designate Nitish Kumar scheduled to be held in Patna today.

The RJD said that it is boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of Kumar as the mandate is against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In a tweet, the RJD said: "The RJD boycotts swearing-in ceremony. The mandate for change is against the NDA. The mandate has been changed on the state's directions. Ask the unemployed, farmers, contract workers and employed teachers of Bihar what is going on with them. The public is agitated by the fraud of the NDA. We are the public's representatives and stand with them."

Alleging foul play in the just-concluded Bihar elections 2020, Tejashwi had demanded recounting of the postal ballot votes in all those constituencies where they were counted at the end.

Kumar will take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth straight term this afternoon after closely-fought legislative assembly elections in the state.

Kumar, after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake claim to form the NDA government in Bihar, had on Sunday announced that the oath-taking, as well as the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, will be held at around 4.30 pm on Monday.

The leaders of the NDA legislature party, which had secured a victory in the recently-concluded election in Bihar, had on Sunday met to deliberate on selecting a leader to lead the party. It had named Kumar as the leader of the NDA legislature party thus paving the way for his return as chief minister for the fourth consecutive term.

The NDA has secured a 125-seat majority in the 243-seat strong Bihar Legislative Assembly of which BJP won on 74 seats, JD(U) on 43 while eight seats were won by two other NDA constituents. The RJD, on the other hand, emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats while the Congress only won 19 of the 70 seats it had contested on.

(ANI)

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