Nitish takes oath as Bihar CM, Sushil Modi also sworn in as Deputy CM

Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar less than 24 hours after he stepped down from the post.

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also administered the oath by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Patna.

Kumar resigned as the chief minister on Wednesday night. The ostensible reason for him to quit was his falling out with the RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi who was the then deputy CM. The JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013, ending its 17-year-old alliance, after Narendra Modi was nominated head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar-led grand alliance of the RJD, JD(U) and Congress trounced the BJP in the 2015 assembly elections in Bihar. After the JD(U) walked out of the grand alliance last evening, the BJP readily stepped in to support its former ally.

With Sushil Modi taking oath, the BJP comes back to power in the state after four years.

It is the sixth time Kumar has been sworn in as the chief minisiter of the state.

The JD(U), BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110.