Bihar Cabinet expansion: 31 ministers inducted in Nitish Kumar's govt; Check full list here

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 Cabinet expansion RJD JDU leaders to be inducted in Nitish Kumar government gcw

Gargi Chaudhry

First Published Aug 16, 2022, 11:58 AM IST

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