Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has finalized his expanded cabi… Read More Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has allocated portfolios to his expanded coalition cabinet, a day after being sworn in for a record tenth term. The BJP, now the single largest party with 89 seats, secured the largest share of ministries in the new Bihar cabinet. Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary has taken charge of the home department, a portfolio, Nitish has kept with him throughout nearly his entire 20-year tenure.
Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha will oversee land and revenue as well as mines and geology. Mangal Pandey has been assigned health and law, while Dilip Jaiswal returns to head the industries department. Nitin Naveen will handle road construction along with urban development and housing.
Who got what
Minister Portfolio(s)
Samrat Choudhary Home department
Vijay Kumar Sinha Land and revenue department Mines and geology department
Mangal Pandey Health department Law department
Dilip Jaiswal Industry department
Nitin Naveen Road construction department Urban development and housing department
Ramkripal Yadav Agriculture department
Sanjay Tiger Labour resources department
Arun Shankar Prasad Tourism department Art, culture and youth department
Suresh Mehta Animal and fishery resources department
Narayan Prasad Disaster management department
Renu Nipas Backward and extremely backward class welfare department
Lakhendra Paswan Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare department
Shreyasi Singh Excise department Sports department
Pramod Chandrawanshi Cooperative department Environment, forest and climate change department
Smaller allies have also been accommodated. LJP(R) has secured the Sugarcane Industry and Public Health Engineering departments, HAM has been allotted Minor Water Resources, and RLM has taken charge of Panchayati Raj.
The reshuffle follows a grand swearing-in ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior NDA leaders and chief ministers of several NDA-ruled states. Nitish Kumar, at 74, returned to office with 26 ministers, eight from JD(U), two from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and one each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).
Samrat Chaudhary had won the Tarapur seat with 1,22,480 votes, ahead of RJD’s Arun Shah, who received 76,637. Meanwhile, in Lakhisarai, BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha emerged victorious with 1,22,408 votes, defeating Congress candidate Amaresh Kumar.
The state cabinet can have a maximum of 36 ministers, including the chief minister.
In the outgoing government, the BJP held 15 berths, the JD(U) had 12 including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, while Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and an Independent MLA had one minister each.
