Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as Bihar chief minister at Gandhi Maidan in Patna at 2 pm on 20 November. The ceremony will be attended by several high-profile politicians from across the country, including national and state leaders.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited for the event, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu will represent the Central government. BJP leaders L K Advani and Shatrughan Sinha have also declined invitations extended by the Bihar CM.
Besides RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, leaders such as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge will attend the event.
Nine chief ministers, including six from Congress-ruled states, have been confirmed for the event. The chief ministers of Congress-ruled states include Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki, Assam's Tarun Gogoi, Himachal Pradesh's Virbhadra Singh, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Manipur CM O Ibobi Singh and Sikkim's P K Chamling.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will also be present at the ceremony.
Among former chief ministers, the confirmed guests include Chattisgarh ex-CM Ajit Jogi, Delhi ex-CM Sheila Dikshit, Gujarat's Shankar Singh Baghela, Haryana's Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Jammu & Kashmir's Omar Abdullah and Jharkhand's Babulal Marandi and Hemant Soren.
Other prominent politicians include DMK leader M K Stalin and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav.
