Nitish expands Bihar Cabinet; 12 BJP and 9 JD(U) Ministers take oath
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded his Cabinet, inducting nine Ministers from the JD (U) and 12 from the BJP. With this, the strength of the Cabinet has risen to 30, six short of the maximum capacity.
The Cabinet expansion comes 46 days after the new NDA government was formed in the State on January 28 as Mr. Kumar severed ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and returned to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP.
After the oathtaking ceremony, all new Ministers said the NDA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the State. In 2019, the NDA had won 39, while the Congress won seat.
In the Cabinet expansion, almost all JD(U) leaders who were earlier Ministers in the Mahagatbandhan government have been repeated, while the BJP has brought the lone
Kishanganj in some new faces like Kedar Gupta, Surendra Mehta, and Santosh Kumar Singh.
Inclusion of EBCs
Both parties have given preference to MLAs belonging to the Extremely
Backward Classes. The recent caste survey had revealed that the EBC population is over 36% in Bihar.
Women MLAs like Renu Devi (BJP), Lesi Singh [JD (U)], and Sheela Kumari Mandal too have found place in the Cabinet.
In the previous NDA government in the State, Ms. Devi was the Deputy Chief Minister along with the party’s Tarkishore Prasad, who did not get a place in the expanded Cabinet. However, party sources said he might contest the Lok Sabha election.
After the oath-taking ceremony, all new Ministers said the NDA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the State