Lalu Yadav’s son Tej Pratap Yadav fumbles while taking oath

RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, who took oath as a minister on Friday along with chief minister Nitish Kumar and his younger brother Tejaswi, caused some laughter among the guests and audience while reading out his oath sheet. On a couple of occasion he was asked to pronounce the words properly after he fumbled. On one occasion, even state governor Ram Nath Kovind had to stop him and correct him while Mr Yadav and Mr Kumar smiled.

Meanwhile, the RJD chief initially did not take note of the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who arrived late for the grand oath-taking ceremony. The Congress leader sat with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, later walking up to Mr Yadav and shaking hands with him.

Mr Gandhi got the attention of the audience who had gathered to see Mr Kumar and his Cabinet ministers take oath. After the ceremony ended, Mr Gandhi moved around, shaking hands with political leaders who were on the dais, including Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu, former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah.

Mr Gandhi later visited the party office in Patna and addressed the MLAs, urging them to work for the “development of the state”. He said: “You have been made ministers to serve the state, not just your constituency or caste, so strengthen the party through your work for the people.”