Bihar cabinet expanded, seven BJP ministers take oath

Patna(The Uttam Hindu):  Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday expanded his cabinet inducting seven BJP ministers. The new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan which was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and Assembly Speaker Nand Kishor Yadav. BJP ministers are Sanjay Saraogi, a five-term MLA from Darbhanga. Saraogi is a prominent leader in the Marwari community. Notably, he took his oath in Maithili.

Sunil Kumar, representing Bihar Sharif, has been elected five times. He belongs to the Koeri caste and has previously been associated with the JD-U before joining the BJP in 2015. Jibesh Kumar Mishra, the MLA from Jale, is from the Bhumihar community and has prior experience as a minister. He also took his oath in the Maithili language. Raju Kumar Singh represents Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur. Singh belongs to the Rajput caste. He was previously with the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) joining the BJP.

Motilal Prasad is the MLA from Riga in Sitamarhi. Prasad is a member of the Vaishya community. Krishna Kumar Mantu, representing Amnour in Saran district, belongs to the Kurmi caste. He recently garnered attention for organising a significant ‘Kurmi Chetna Rally’ in Patna. Vijay Kumar Mandal, representing the Sikti assembly constituency in Araria district, is from the Kewat community, categorised under the extremely backward classes.

After inducting the BJP leaders, the party has taken care of all sections of society. The party has targeted the Lav-Kush (Kurmu-Koiri (Kushwaha), upper caste Bhumihar and Rajput, Vaisya community in Sanjay Saraogi and Motilal Prasad and EBC Vijay Kumar Mandal. Ahead of the the expansion, state BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal quit his ministerial post in line with the party principle of one man one post. With the expansion, the strength of the Nitish Kumar council of ministers has risen to 37 in which BJP’s share has increased from 16 to 22 while the JD-U has 13 ministers including the Chief Minister and one minister is from HIndustani Awam Morcha and another one is an independent.

On Tuesday, the BJP President J.P. Nadda and state in-charge Vinond Tawde had visited Patna and held a meeting with the state unit’s core committee to decide the way forward for the party. Assembly election in Bihar are scheduled at the end of the 2025.