Ahead of Assembly polls, Nitish inducts seven new ministers, all from BJP

Patna: With less than a year left for the Bihar Assembly elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his Cabinet on Wednesday, inducting seven new ministers, all from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The latest reshuffle brings the total number of ministers to 36, the upper limit for a 243-member Assembly.

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office to the newly inducted ministers at Raj Bhavan. All the new appointees are members of the state Assembly.

The Cabinet expansion came on the same day that Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from his ministerial post, citing the party’s “one person, one post” policy. Jaiswal, who held the Revenue and Land Reform portfolio, said, “I am thankful to the party’s leadership for entrusting me with major responsibilities. As a minister, I took pride in accomplishments like digitization of records running into more than 11 crore pages. I shall now wholeheartedly devote myself to strengthening the party’s organization.”

Among those sworn in was Jibesh Kumar, a former minister who was part of the state Cabinet until August 2022. He exited after Nitish Kumar severed ties with the NDA, accusing the BJP of attempting to “break” the Janata Dal (United). “I am ready to discharge the responsibility to the best of my ability,” he said after taking the oath.

Other inductees include Sanjay Saraogi, a five-term MLA from Darbhanga, and Sunil Kumar, a five-time legislator from Bihar Sharif, a stronghold of the chief minister. “I look forward to discharging the new responsibility. Earlier, I used to pose questions to the government. Now, I shall be expected to reply to queries from fellow members,” said Saraogi.

Raju Kumar Singh, another newly appointed minister, had contested the 2020 elections on a Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) ticket before shifting allegiance to the BJP.

When asked whether his induction was a “reward” for switching parties, Singh said, “It is the party’s prerogative to decide what responsibility should be given to whom. I shall try to live up to the expectations of the party as well as the people of Bihar.”

Krishna Kumar Mantu, the MLA from Amnour, also took the oath. He had recently organized a “Kurmi Chetna Rally” in Patna, targeting outreach to the influential OBC community, to which the chief minister belongs.

The remaining two inductees, Vijay Kumar Mandal (Sikti) and Moti Lal Prasad (Riga), further bolster the BJP’s presence in the Cabinet. The selection appears to reflect a strategic focus on caste and regional equations ahead of the upcoming elections.

With the expansion coming a day after BJP national president JP Nadda chaired a meeting of the party’s core group in Patna, the move is being viewed as a calculated step to consolidate the party’s base. Two of the new ministers, Jibesh Kumar and Raju Kumar Singh, represent the upper-caste Bhumihar and Rajput communities, respectively, a key support bloc for the BJP.

Additionally, most of the new ministers hail from regions north of the Ganges, where the NDA has traditionally fared better than its rivals, the RJD, Congress, and Left parties.