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Shortly after Nitish Kumar took oath, a record ninth time, as Bihar Chief Minister with BJP as its partner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out congratulations to the new Bihar team and the Chief Minister.

Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha, from the BJP, are Nitish Kumar’s new deputies.

“The NDA government formed in Bihar will leave no stone unturned for the development of the state and to fulfil the aspirations of its people. Congratulate @NitishKumar ji on becoming Chief Minister and Samrat Chaudhary ji and Vijay Sinha ji on taking oath as Deputy Chief Ministers,” Mr Modi posted on X in Hindi.

बिहार में बनी एनडीए सरकार राज्य के विकास और यहां के लोगों की आकांक्षाओं को पूरा करने के लिए कोई कोर-कसर नहीं छोड़ेगी। @NitishKumar जी को मुख्यमंत्री और सम्राट चौधरी जी एवं विजय सिन्हा जी को उप मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ लेने पर मेरी बहुत-बहुत बधाई।

मुझे विश्वास है कि यह टीम पूरे…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 28, 2024

“I am confident that this team will serve my family members of the state with full dedication. @samrat4bjp @VijayKrSinhaBih,” the Prime Minister added.

However, the new realignment in Bihar and Nitish Kumar’s fifth political U-turn in a decade has earned him the moniker “paltumaar or “paltu Kumar””. ‘Paltumar’ means someone who keeps shifting his stand.

“I have been saying this since the beginning that Nitish Kumar can swap anytime. This has become a part of his politics. But today’s developments have shown that all parties and leaders in Bihar are ‘paltumaars’,” said poll strategist Prashant Kishor, not sparing the BJP, tagging them also as “paltumaars”.

The BJP, said the poll ace, had declared that its doors are shut for Mr Kumar. “The BJP leaders verbally abusing Nitish Kumar yesterday will now hail him as a symbol of good governance. RJD, which was calling him a leader for the future, will see corruption in Bihar today,” he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar’s deputy Chief Minister until a few hours ago, termed his ex boss and ally, Nitish Kumar, a “tired Chief Minister”, as the latter pulled a big switcheroo and joined hands with the BJP again.

“It seems we made a tired CM (chief minister) work. The game is not over yet,” Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, told reporters.

Explaining his big move, Nitish Kumar, 72, told reporters in Patna,” The new Grand Alliance that we created (in August 2022) is not in a good condition. The situation is not looking good.”

Mr Kumar also dissed the Opposition bloc INDIA, which was engineered by him.