Patna: The stage is set for the oath taking ceremony of Chief Minister-designate Nitish Kumar on Friday in the presence of important leaders and chief ministers of several states.
All arrangements have been made for the function at the Gandhi Maidan at 2 pm, Patna Divisional Commissioner Anand Kishore, who is supervising the arrangements, said. Kishore said considering arrival of so many VIPs, more than 2,000 security personnel would be deployed at the venue. Two canopy shaped dais had been prepared for VVIPs and those under SPG cover. In the main dais, Nitish Kumar, his new sets of ministers and VVIPs would sit.
In the adjacent dais, all newly elected MLAs would be accomodated.
There would be a separate gallery for women who would be coming to attend the ceremony, he said.
Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Vikash Vaibhav on Thursday supervised the security drill to escort VVIPs from Airport to the Gandhi Maidan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accepted invitation from Nitish Kumar but would not be able to attend the function due to prior engagements. He has deputed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu to represent the Union Government at the ceremony.
The Chief Minister's Office has released a list of guests which include Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister H D Devegowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his National Conference counterpart Farooq Abdullah and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
The official guest list has names of nine chief ministers including West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and UP CM Akhilesh Yadav.
Six chief ministers of Congress ruled states would also attend. They are Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Sikkim CM P K Chamling, Manipur CM O Ibobi Singh and Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki.
