Nitish sworn in as CM; trust vote today

Patna, July 27,2017(TheHindu): Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time at the Raj Bhavan here on Thursday. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the deputy chief minister. No other member from either the JD(U) or the BJP was sworn in. Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has asked Nitish to prove his majority in the Assembly by Saturday. The swearing-in took place a day after Nitish snapped ties with the RJD and the Congress. Nitish will seek a trust vote in the Assembly on Friday. A one-day session has been convened during which he will move a vote of confidence. Meanwhile, the RJD has decided to move court after it was denied the chance to form the government despite being the single-largest party in the Assembly.  In a dramatic turn of events, the swearing-in was advanced from 5 pm to 10 am as leader of the RJD Legislature Party Tejashwi Yadav was scheduled to meet the governor at 11 am. When this news came in, Nitish, along with Sushil Modi, met Tripathi on Wednesday midnight and is believed to have urged the governor to advance the ceremony. This was done to pre-empt any move by Tejashwi, who claimed that being the single-largest party in the Assembly (with 80 MLAs), the governor should first invite the RJD to form the government. But Tejashwi did meet the governor in the early hours of Thursday, at 2.30 am. “We will seek the court’s intervention as we, despite having the majority (with Congress, CPI-ML and Independents), were denied the chance to form the government,” said Tejashwi, who marched to Raj Bhavan with a five-member delegation. Later, RJD chief Lalu Prasad appealed to his partymen not to take out any protest march to Raj Bhavan or indulge in any road blockades. His instructions came after reports poured in on the RJD supporters blocking the Ganga Bridge near Hajipur and other roads in north Bihar.  SIXTH INNINGS: March 2000: Nitish sworn-in as CM for the first time. Quits within seven days after he fails to muster support. November 2005: Sworn in as CM. Nov 2010: Sworn in as CM for the third time. Feb 2015: Replaces Jitan Ram Manjhi as CM. Nov 2015: Takes oath as CM for the fifth time. July 27, 2017: Sworn in as Bihar CM for the sixth time.