Six - The number of times Nitish Kumar will be taking oath as Bihar CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

New Delhi: Nitish Kumar will be sworn-in again as new Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday, as per media reports.

Senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said his party had decided to back the JD(U) leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

The BJP on Wednesday night handed over to Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi the letter extending support to Nitish for forming the next government.

State BJP chief Nityanand Rai and Modi drove to Raj Bhavan late this evening and handed over the letter.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53. The two parties together have 124 MLAs, marginally ahead of the half-way mark.

Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP (02) and RLSP (02).

On a day of dramatic developments, Nitish earlier today resigned as CM, dumping RJD over corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

Citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejashwi, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supremo rejected outright the demand for his son's ouster.

His resignation capped days of stand-off between his party JD(U) and the RJD with the former insisting that Tejashwi defend himself against the allegations.

This is the sixth time that Nitish will be taking oath as CM of the state.

- He took oath as CM of Bihar for the fifth time last year after he led the Grand Alliance of JD(U), Congress and RJD to victory in Bihar decimating the BJP.

- Before this, Nitish took oath as CM of the state for the fourth time in February 2015 for the fourth time. This time he was back as CM after he had quit on 17 May 2014 over JD(U)’s debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

- His first tenure as CM was for just seven days from 3 to 10 March 2000. Kumar had quit then in the absence of majority.

- He returned as Bihar CM on 24 November 2005 as part of NDA leader and his third term started from 26 November 2010. 

(With PTI inputs)