Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigns as minister, Nitish to expand cabinet in evening

Patna: Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet on Wednesday morning to conform with his party's policy of 'one person, one post'.

The resignation came ahead of the expansion of the council of ministers in the evening, according to the Information and Public Relations Department.

Jaiswal, who held the crucial Revenue and Land Reform portfolio, was inducted into the cabinet in January last year after the BJP returned to power in the state with CM Nitish Kumar joining the NDA.

In July, he replaced Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary as the state BJP president.

"I am thankful to the party's leadership for entrusting me with major responsibilities. As a minister, I took pride in accomplishments like digitisation of records running into more than 11 crore pages. I shall now wholeheartedly devote myself to strengthening the party's organisation," he told reporters after tendering the resignation.

Jaiswal announced his resignation hours after BJP president JP Nadda chaired a meeting of the party's state core committee in Patna on Tuesday night. Party leaders did not divulge details of the discussions, only stating that they centred around the assembly polls due later this year.

Information and Public Relations Department officials said the state cabinet will be expanded with new ministers scheduled to be sworn in at 4 pm in Raj Bhavan.

Asked about the speculations on who would be inducted into the state cabinet, Jaiswal said, "This is the prerogative of the chief minister."

On being pressed further, he said that as the state BJP president, he would be privy to such developments, but insisted that "I have not received any intimation in this regard from the Chief Minister's Office so far".

"I will definitely share more details when the time comes," he added.

Jaiswal was also asked about the impact of his resignation on the state's ambitious fresh survey of land records. He said, "As of now, the CM has kept the portfolio with himself. There will certainly be a suitable replacement at the earliest."