Wednesday, November 23 2005 16:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Bihar's would be Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would call on Governor Buta Singh this evening (Nov 23, 2005) to stake claim to form the Government.

Kumar, who arrived here this afternoon, drove to the state Janata Dal-United (JD-U) office where a meeting of its legislature party has been convened at 1600 hours to formally elect him its leader.

A separate meeting of the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs would also take place simultaneously to elect its leader.

The meeting of the newly-elected members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies, JD(U) and BJP, has been convened at the state assembly auditorium at 1800 hours to formally elect Nitish Kumar as their leader.

Kumar would later meet Governor Buta Singh at Rajbhavan around 6.30 PM to stake claim to form the NDA Government.

Swearing-in of Kumar and some of his ministers, including a Deputy Chief Minister from BJP, would be held at a colourful function at historic Gandhi Maidan at one in the afternoon tomorrow (Nov 24, 2005) for which preparations are on.