Patna: An array of personalities, mostly from the non-BJP stable, that could indicate possible future political alignments, will be present at the swearing in ceremony of Nitish Kumar, who is set to take over as Chief Minister for the third straight term on Friday.
The stage is set for the ceremony at the Gandhi Maidan here that will be attended among others by ally Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister H D Devegowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his National Conference counterpart Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who did an aggressive campaign against Kumar-Lalu Prasad combine during the elections, was invited by the Chief Minister to attend the function.
But he will not be present and has instead deputed Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Lalu Prasad, who jointly steered the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine to a stunning victory, will be present tomorrow along with JD(U) President Sharad Yadav.
Not all the non-BJP leaders present at tomorrow's function could come together in one front because of their mutually antagonistic positions in states concerned but still some of them could, said political observers.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and counterparts from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav and Sikkim CM P K Chamling have been invited along with chief ministers of Congress-ruled states.
They are Virbhadra Singh (Himachal Pradesh), Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Tarun Gogoi (Assam), Ibobi Singh (Manipur) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh).
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, D Raja of CPI, whose parties contested against the JD(U) led combine and but are anti-BJP in nature, and M K Stalin of the DMK have also confirmed their participation.
A notable presence will be that of BJP ally Shiv Sena, which has accepted the invitation and decided to send two Maharashtra ministers Ram Das Kadam and Subhash Desai to the function. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray himself was invited by Kumar but he has expressed his inability to attend the ceremony.
