Nitish Kumar to expand his cabinet on Sunday, three to four persons to take oath as minister

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will expand his cabinet on Sunday. At present, there are 11 vacancies in the state cabinet.
Governor Lalji Tandon will administer oath of office and secrecy to new ministers at a ceremony, scheduled to be held at the Raj Bhawan at 11.30 am on Sunday, a Raj Bhawan official told TOI.
However, there is no official confirmation as to how many new ministers will take oath during tomorrow’s ceremony.
Sources said, three to four persons- all from the ruling JD(U)-- would take oath as ministers. The state cabinet, at present, has 11 vacancies.
The legislators whose name are being speculated as probable ministers are JD(U) leaders Ashok Choudhary, Neeraj Kumar, Sanjay Jha, Ranvir Nandan (all MLCs), Shyam Rajak, Ranju Geeta, Ram Sewak Singh and Narendra Narayan Yadav (all MLAs). Rajak, Ranju Geeta and Yadav have been ministers in previous government of Nitish Kumar. However, majority of these leaders when contacted by TOI said that they have no invitation for taking oath as minister either from the Raj Bhawan or the state government.
As per the constitutional provision, any chief minister in Bihar can induct a maximum of 35 cabinet ministers. During the last cabinet expansion on July 29, 2017, Nitish had inducted a total of 28 cabinet ministers including deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, thus leaving seven posts for next expansion. Of the total 28 ministers, 14 came from the BJP, 13 from the JD(U) and one (Pashupati Kumar Paras) from the LJP.
One more vacancy in the state cabinet was created on August 8 last year after the lone woman minister – the social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma- was forced to resign after a section of media, quoting police sources and call data record (CDR), reported that her husband Chandeshwar Verma had talked to Muzaffarpur shelter home rape accused Brajesh Thakur at least 17 times between January-June in 2018.
Three more vacancies in the state cabinet were created recently after the state’s water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, disaster management minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav and the animal and fish resources minister Pashupati Kumar Paras quit their respective posts following their election as member of the Lok Sabha.
Thus, three vacancies (that of Verma, Singh and Yadav) was created from the JD(U) quota and one from the LJP quota.
On being contacted, the LJP state president Pashupati Kumar Paras who recently quit as minister creating one vacancy for his party said he or his party had no invitation for taking oath as minister. “No one from the LJP will take oath as minister tomorrow,” Paras told TOI.
No leader either from the ally BJP has been invited for taking oath as minister during the Sunday ceremony. The BJP senior and Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi could not be reached for his comment despite attempts to contact him on his mobile phone.