PATNA, Nov. 19 -- Stage is set for the oath to Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief Minister at the historic Gandhi Maidan in state capital Patna on November 20. The event, according to JD(U) leaders, will be grand with attendance of a large number of dignitaries from across the country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It will be Nitish's 10th oath as CM. He has taken oath four times as CM after winning the elections. Of the four times he has taken oath after election since 2005, three have been at Patna's Gandhi Maidan, which has been witness to many historic events since pre-independence era. It was only once after 2020 election due to Covid pandemic that it was a lowkey affair at the Raj Bhawan. What is more, eight Governors have administered him the oath of office as CM in the last two and half decades. While it was VC Pande in 2000 the first time, it would be Arif Mohammad Khan on November 20, 2025. In between Buta Singh, Devanand Konwar, Ram Nath Kovind, Keshri Nath Tripathi, Fagu Chauhan and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered him oath of office from time to time. Tripathi and Chouhan administered oath to him twice due to his regular swaps between after 2015. As the longest serving CM of Bihar, he has also worked with six different Deputy CMs -- five from the BJP and one from the RJD -- since 2005. "Besides the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of NDA-ruled states will be present at the swearing in to make it the grandest so far," said a senior BJP leader. In 2000, Kumar, then a Samata Party leader and a Union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet, took oath for the first time as Bihar CM, but his government could last just seven days, as he could not muster the required numbers to prove the majority in the 324-member Assembly of then undivided Bihar comprising the present Jharkhand state, and resigned ahead of the trust vote. However, he led the NDA to a decisive victory again in 2005 October-November and it was the first time he took oath as CM at Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan, along with BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi as the deputy CM and 26 other ministers. It was a big show of strength as the then Governor Buta Singh administered the oath. The NDA had finally managed to dislodge the RJD government after a long battle primarily over law and order situation and it was seen as a big achievement. A galaxy of BJP bigwigs, including Prime Minister Vajpayee, BJP president LK Advani, Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Madhya Pradesh CM Babulal Gaur and BJP leaders M Venkaiah Naidu, Uma Bharti and Arun Jaitely attended the function. Five years later in 2010, the Nitish-led NDA government got the biggest-ever mandate with 206 seats on the 'development plank' to seal the fate of the RJD, which was reduced to its lowest ever tally of 22. The landslide called for a big show of strength and the oath ceremony was again held at the Gandhi Maidan on November 26, 2010. The then Governor Devanand Konwar administered the oath to Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Modi and 28 ministers. The then BJP president Nitin Gadkari, senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Anant Kumar and Shatrughan Sinha were among those who attended the ceremony. In 2015, however, Nitish Kumar's JD-U was part of the Grand Alliance (GA) comprising RJD, Congress and the left parties. The GA swept the election winning 178 seats, while the BJP could get just 53. The swearing in was held on November 24, 2015 and the then Governor Ramnath Kovind administered the oath of office to Nitish Kumar, first time MLA Tejaswi Prasad Yadav as his deputy and 27 other ministers at the Gandhi Maidan. The grand occasion was witnessed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former PM HD Deve Gowda, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPM's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja and union minister M Venkaiah Naidu. The swearing in ceremony of Nitish in 2020 was a subdued affair on account of the COVID 19 pandemic. The Grand Alliance stated away from the function, but union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda attended it. This time, Governor Phagu Chauhan administered the oath. On March 10 1990, Lalu Prasad Yadav was also sworn by the hen Governor Mohammed Yunus Saleem at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna as the 25th Chief Minister of Bihar. Former chief secretary VS Dube, who served in the undivided Bihar and later at the apex position in Jharkhand also, said that it was more of a recent practice, which suits both the leaders as well as the masses. "I don't recall if any other CM apart from Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad took oath at the Gandhi Maidan. There is nothing in the Constitution where the oath should take place. What is written is that the Governor should administer the oath and usually it happened at the Raj Bhawan. "But there the entry is restricted and no many people can attend the function, while at the Gandhi Maidan it is a show of strength and publicity, while the people attending it also go with memory of having witnessed the oath ceremony," he added....