RJD to stay away from Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony

Patna: Reinstating the stand that mandate was in favour of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has decided not to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar as the Bihar Chief Minister being held in Patna on Monday. Kumar will take oath as the Bihar CM for a fourth term in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. The RJD said it was boycotting the event as it believes that the mandate of the people was against the NDA.

The RJD tweeted from its official Twitter account, saying, "RJD rejects the swearing-in ceremony of the NDA government since the mandate of the people is against the NDA. Instead the people's mandate has been turned into a 'government order'. Ask the unemployed, farmers, contract workers, 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."

According to sources, many opposition RJD leaders, including party leader Tejashwi Yadav, were sent invitations to attend the oath-taking ceremony.

In another tweet taking a dig at the JD-U and BJP government, the RJD said, "Two helpless parties were forming the government in Bihar today. One is helpless because it is led by a weak and corrupt Chief Minister. The other is a senior alliance partner which is faceless and has an insatiable hunger for power. The compulsion of both the JD-U and the BJP forming the government is - People of Bihar have accepted Tejashwi Yadav as their most popular leader and given their mandate to the RJD-led Grand Alliance."

NDA legislature party leaders on Sunday had met to name Nitish Kumar as the leader of the NDA alliance in the Bihar Assembly, paving the way for his return as Chief Minister.