Nitish Kumar on Wednesday took oath as Bihar chief minister for the eighth time and sounded the bugle for Opposition unity in the 2024 general election to take on the BJP.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav took oath as deputy chief minister.

“I will now work to strengthen Opposition politics in the country. Some people think the Opposition will come to an end. There is a need for everybody to unite for 2024. We should make up our mind and come together,” Nitish, who had dumped the BJP on Tuesday and tied up with the RJD, Congress and various Left outfits, told reporters after being sworn in.

BJP president J.P. Nadda had recently said in Patna that all the regional parties would be decimated and only the BJP would remain.

Nitish dismissed questions about his prime ministerial ambitions, saying he was “not a contender”. At the same time he threw down the gauntlet, suggesting without naming anyone that Narendra Modi would be unable to retain the Prime Minister’s post after the next general election.

“He who came in 2014, will he be able to stay on beyond 2024? Whether I’m there or not, he will not be there in 2024,” Nitish, leader of the Janata Dal United (JDU), said.

He recalled his days in the National Democratic Alliance of Atal Bihari Vajpayee fondly, taking a dig at the present ruling dispensation at the Centre.

“We can never forget the love we got during the time of Vajpayee and (the late JDU leader) George Fernandes. But ask our party leaders what has been happening in recent times,” he said.

“We put a person (R.C.P. Singh) there (in the Union cabinet). He started applying his brain somewhere else instead of staying with the party.”

The JDU, with which RCP had a bitter parting last week, believes the BJP had tried to use him to undermine Nitish and weaken the party.

“I had stopped talking to people after noticing what was happening. I was just doing my work. Finally, I chose to abide by what my party and party leaders wanted,” the chief minister said.

He said he would try to get the Assembly convened soon for a floor test. The cabinet will be expanded afterwards.

Sources said an RJD member would replace the present Speaker, Vijay Kumar Sinha.

Nitish’s ambition of becoming Prime Minister is well known. It led to friction with the BJP in 2013 after Modi was picked as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, prompting Nitish to quit the alliance.

Nitish joined hands with the RJD and Congress to defeat the BJP in the 2015 Assembly polls only to jump back into the BJP’s arms in 2017. Veteran political observers expect him to take one last shot at the top job in the country now.

After taking the oath of office, Tejashwi touched Nitish’s feet. His mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi, wife Rachel Yadav and elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav were in the audience.

“We will take Bihar firmly ahead along the path of development. We will work on our commitment to provide jobs to youths within one month. I have talked to the chief minister and he too has expressed concern at the situation,” Tejashwi said.

Rabri said the change of government was “a very good thing for state and country”.

The BJP, shocked at suddenly losing power in Bihar, staged a sit-in outside its state headquarters in Patna, with Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai participating.

BJP leaders accused Nitish of “betrayal” and pooh-poohed his allegations about efforts to weaken the JDU. They alleged that the entire turn of events was the result of his ambition of becoming Prime Minister.

“We made Nitish the chief minister despite the JDU getting just 43 seats (compared with the BJP’s 74 in the 2020 Assembly elections). Why would we try to weaken it?” Giriraj said.

“We made him chief minister right from the beginning. However, the bug of prime ministerial ambitions has bitten him. The BJP has no vacancy, so he has switched sides.”

However, a senior BJP leader told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity: “(The BJP) believed in all its smugness that Nitish had nowhere to go. This was the prime reason nobody tried to address the problems cropping up with the JDU.”