synopsis
A total of 31 Bihar MLAs are likely to take oath as ministers, days after Nitish Kumar was sworn-in as the chief minister with Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy. As many as 30 members from Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD will be inducted into the Bihar Cabinet.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Tuesday, expanded his two-member cabinet, inducting 31 members from various parties of the 'Mahagathbandhan' or the Grand Alliance. 16 of the 31 ministers who took the oath of office belonged to the RJD, 11 to Kumar's JD(U), two to the Congress, one to the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, and one to the Independent.
In the first batch of Bihar cabinet expansion, JD(U)'s Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Yadav and RJD's Tej Pratap Yadav and Alok Mehta, and Afaque Alam from Congress took oath as ministers. Shravan Kumar, Ashok Choudhary, and Leshi Singh of the JD(U), as well as Surendra Prasad Yadav and Ramanand Yadav of the RJD, were also sworn in as ministers in the second batch. The RJD, which is the largest party in the state Assembly, has got a lion's share of ministerial berths, followed by Kumar's JD(U).
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The new Bihar cabinet also includes HAM politician and Manjhi Santosh Kumar Suman's son Sanjay Jha and Madan Sahni of the JD(U), Kumar Sarvajeet and Lalit Yadav of the RJD, and Suman. Sheela Kumari and Sunil Kumar of the JD(U), Samir Kumar Mahaset, and Chandrashekhar of the RJD are among the others who took the oath to serve as ministers. Sumit Kumar Singh, the lone Independent, was also given a position in the Nitish Kumar administration's cabinet.
Three RJD leaders—Jitendra Kumar Rai, Anita Devi, and Sudhakar Singh—as well as Mohammad Zama Khan and Jayant Raj of the JD(U) took the oath of office as ministers. Israel Mansuri, Surendra Ram, Kartikeya Singh, Shahnawaz Alam, Shamim Ahmed of RJD and Murari Gautam of Congress were also sworn-in as minister.
Here's the full list of portfolio allocation:
Nitish Kumar – Home, General Administration, Cabinet Secretariat, Election
Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav – Health, Road Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Rural Development.
Vijay Kumar Chaudhary - Finance, Commercial Tax and Parliamentary Affairs
Tej Pratap Yadav - Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Bijendra Yadav – Power, Planning and Development
Alok Mehta – Revenue & Land Reforms
Afaque Alam - Animal Husbandry & Fisheries
Shravan Kumar - Rural Development
Ashok Choudhary - Building Construction
Leshi Singh - Food & Consumer Protection Department
Sanjay Jha - Water Resources and Information & Public Relations
Madan Sahni - Social Welfare
Kumar Sarvajeet - Tourism
Surendra Prasad Yadav - Co-operative
Ramanand Yadav - Mines and Geology
Santosh Kumar Suman – Welfare (SC & ST, Backward & Economically Backward Classes)
Lalit Yadav - Public Health & Engineering
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