'Worry' about 2024 polls: Nitish's warning to BJP

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was on Wednesday sworn in for the eighth time, asserted that the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to 'worry' about its prospects in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Talking to reporters shortly after he was administered the oath of office by Governor Phagu Chauhan, Kumar also rubbished the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim that the new government will not last its full term, and said his former ally 'will be back where they were after the 2015 assembly polls'.

Kumar was sworn in besides Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav, who is likely to be designated as his deputy.

Sources in the seven-party ruling coalition said that a cabinet expansion would take place later.

Leaders of the BJP, which is the second largest party in the assembly with 77 MLAs, were conspicuous by their absence at the swearing in ceremony that took place inside the Raj Bhavan.

Earlier, senior BJP leader and former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had claimed that the party, with which Kumar broke his alliance the previous day, had received 'no invitation'.