PATNA, MARCH 11: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rabri Devi was on Saturday sworn in as the 30th Chief Minister of Bihar at a ceremony boycotted by the National Democratic Alliance leaders in protest against Governor V C Pande's decision to hand over the reins of power to her.Rabri Devi assumed office once again after eight-day gap during which Nitish Kumar was appointed the chief minister before bowing out of office on Friday in the face of a certain defeat on the confidence motion.A day after the fall of the NDA ministry, the alliance mounted an offensive against the RJD stoutly protesting Governor's decision inviting Rabri Devi to form government.In a letter faxed to Pande, the NDA expressed strong displeasure over Governor's invitation when a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) petition seeking gubernatorial sanction against Rabri Devi and RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav in a disproportionate assets case was pending before him."Since the CBI is awaiting gubernatorial sanction to prosecute the duo it is improper on the part of Governor to swear her in," Kumar told a crowded press conference announcing to boycott the oath-taking ceremony.The CBI had on March 8 sought the Governor's permission to prosecute Laloo and Rabri, a co-accused, in case No 5/a 98 relating to amassing wealth to the tune of Rs 42.52 lakh in excess of their known source of income.Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi referred to a court case in which former Tamil Nadu assembly speaker R Muthaiah and his two sons were sentenced to 25-month rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.Kumar accused the 23-member Congress of betraying the people of Bihar by propping up a discredited regime which it had promised to end."I bowed out of office as we lacked in numbers to prove our majority in the assembly but our stock has gone up in the eyes of the people," he claimed, adding the NDA would launch a string of agitational programmes to highlight the "betrayal" by the Congress.Kumar defended his decision to accept the Governor's invitation to form the ministry saying, "The people would have otherwise said we shirked the duty of ridding the state of the RJD misrule."He said at least 12 Congress MLAs had assured him of support as they had got elected on anti-RJD plank.Meanwhile, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (S) president Shibu Soren accused Laloo of having betrayed the Jharkhand cause despite getting support from the tribal party to ensure survival of his Government in the past.He said the JMM(S) had decided to continue with its alliance with the NDA for the sake of creation of Jharkhand state and discounted possibilities of any split in its 12-member legislature party.Kumar said the formalities for the inclusion of JMM(S) in the NDA would be completed very soon and predicted a fall of the RJD government in the near future.He said the NDA would observe March 13 as "betrayal day" across Bihar to expose the Congress' role in the return of the RJD regime.This would be followed by a workers' conference of NDA partners in Patna on March 23 and a series of rallies at important cities and towns of the State from March 30.
