Will remain in NDA fold forever now: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Patna (Bihar): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said that now he will stay in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) forever and will continue to work for the people of his state.

The Janata Dal (United) supremo's remarks came days after he dumped the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) and the INDIA bloc to form a new government with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar.

Hitting out at the opposition's grouping, which has vowed to take on the BJP at the Centre in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Kumar said that the alliance's name --INDIA-- was christened even after his requests to choose another one.

"I was urging them to choose another name for the alliance. But they had already finalized it. I was trying so hard. They did not do even one thing. Till today they haven't decided which party will contest how many seats," Kumar told reporters here.

He said, "Then I left them and came back to who I was with initially. Now I will stay here forever. I will keep working for the people of Bihar."

Nitish Kumar said that the new government will seek a trust vote in the state assembly on February 10.

Nitish's comments come after the Congress and the RJD accused him of being a master of U-turns.

Congress General Secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh said, "I thought Narendra Modi was a master of U-turns... but Nitish Kumar has left even the master of U-turns behind."

Nitish Kumar took the oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time in Raj Bhawan, Patna, switching sides again, this time with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

It was for the second time in two years that Nitish Kumar had jumped the ship, his fifth crossover in a little over a decade.

Two Deputy Chief Ministers from the BJP, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and six other ministers, including Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Santosh Kumar Suman, Shrawan Kumar, and others, also took the oath on Sunday.