Swearing-in of New Bihar Govt Likely on Nov 20 : Hectic lobbying among NDA partners for berth

PTI, PATNA, NOV 17, 2025 :  The swearing-in ceremony of the new government in Bihar is likely to take place in Patna on November 20, official sources said on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other top leaders of the NDA, including Union Ministers, are expected to take part in the oath-taking event, they said. Earlier in the day, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal told reporters that the newly elected legislators will meet on Tuesday to elect their legislature party leader. "Most likely, the oath-taking ceremony of the new government will take place either on November 20 or November 21," he said.

Preparations are underway at Patna's Gandhi Maidan for the swearing-in event. Meanwhile, the last cabinet meeting of the outgoing NDA government in Bihar on Monday "authorised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to recommend dissolution of the Assembly," a state minister said. "The CM met Governor Arif Mohammad Khan soon after the meeting to apprise him about the decision of the cabinet. The cabinet in its meeting passed a resolution to recommend the dissolution of the Assembly on November 19," he said.

It deserves mention here that hectic lobbying has started among NDA partners to finalize the allocation of cabinet berths ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the new Bihar government, scheduled to take place here on November 20. Sources said the new cabinet is likely to include five to six fresh faces from the main constituents - the BJP and JD-U.

Umesh Singh Kushwaha, JD-U chief of the state unit who won from the Mahnar seat, is likely to be inducted into the new cabinet of Nitish Kumar, who prepares to take oath as the CM for a record 10th time. Kumar will submit his resignation to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan as head of the outgoing government on November 19.

While the JD-U is set to retain most of its ministers, the BJP may introduce a few new faces, sources said. Of the 25 ministers in the outgoing cabinet who contested the polls, all but one won. The lone unsuccessful minister, Sumit Kumar Singh, elected as an Independent in 2020 and later inducted into the cabinet, failed to retain his seat after contesting on a JD-U ticket.

Along with the JD-U and the BJP, smaller partners - Union minister Chirag Paswan's LJP (RV), Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM-S, and Upendra Kushwaha's RLM - will also be part of the new cabinet.