Patna, Mar 15 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded his cabinet, which is less than two months old, by inducting 21 ministers.
The inductions rose the strength to 30, just six short of the constitutional limit for the state.
At a ceremony organised inside the Raj Bhavan, 12 members of ally BJP and nine of the chief minister’s JD(U) were administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar.
A host of dignitaries, including the chief minister and his two deputies, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, were present at the function during which chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Narendra Modi Zindabad’ and ‘Abki baar 400 paar’ were raised by BJP leaders, ebullient at return to power in the state which has also boosted the party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha polls.
While all JD(U) inductees, except Maheshwar Hazari who resigned as the assembly’s deputy speaker last month, happen to be those who were holding ministerial berths in the previous Mahagathbandhan government, the BJP has relied on a mix of experience and fresh blood.
The ministers from the BJP include Renu Devi, who was a deputy CM until Kumar pulled the plug on the alliance in August 2022, and her then-cabinet colleagues Mangal Pandey, Nitin Nabin, Neeraj Kumar Singh ‘Bablu’ and Janak Ram.
Another BJP inductee Nitish Mishra is the son of the late Jagannath Mishra, a well-known Congress leader of his time who became the chief minister of Bihar thrice. Mishra was formerly with the JD(U) and had held a cabinet berth from that party’s quota.
Besides, BJP leaders Hari Sahni, the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, Dilip Kumar Jaiswal, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Krishnannandan Paswan, Surendra Mehta and Santosh Kumar Singh have made it to the state cabinet for the first time.
From the JD(U), the inductees include Mohd Zama Khan, who became the only Muslim in the NDA cabinet and the chief minister’s confidant Ashok Choudhary.
Other JD(U) leaders who are back as ministers include Leshi Singh, Sheela Mandal, Madan Sahni, Ratnesh Sada, Sunil Kumar Singh and Jayant Raj.
Until the expansion, the state cabinet, which was formed at the end of January, had four ministers from the JD(U), including the chief minister, and three from the BJP, two of them designated as deputy CMs.
The other JD(U) ministers are Bijendra Yadav, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Shravan Kumar. Besides BJP’s Prem Kumar, who held a cabinet berth till 2020, returned as a minister in January.
Besides, Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh and Santosh Suman, whose father Jitan Ram Manjhi heads the four-MLA-strong Hindustani Awam Morcha, are ministers.
Notably, none of the seven turncoats from the Congress-RJD combine, who had crossed over during the budget session of the assembly last month, were considered for ministerial berths.
A number of prominent BJP leaders, who held cabinet berths in the NDA government that was in power till August, 2022, have been dropped. These include Tarkishor Prasad, who was then a deputy CM, and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, the saffron party’s best-known Muslim face.
The newly inducted ministers include six Dalits, two from the BJP and four from the JD(U). Besides, JD(U) and BJP seem to have given weightage to their respective support bases of non-Yadav OBCs and the upper castes.
In a statement, senior BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi hailed his ex-boss for “giving a boost to female empowerment with the induction of three women”. PTI NAC ACD
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