PATNA: The first expansion of the Nitish Kumar cabinet on Tuesday, 84 days after taking oath on November 16 last year, has surprised many with some of the expected names ‘not’ on the list and a few finding ministerial berths which they may not have expected.
The norms allow the state cabinet to have up to 36 ministers, including the chief minister. Since there were 14 ministers, including CM Nitish, and 17 more have been administered oaths, five ministerial berths are still vacant.
While BJP preferred new faces to the old guards, Nitish’s JD(U) went for a mix of experience and debutants. Surprisingly again, Mithilanchal, Seemanchal and Kosi regions bagged the maximum representation among the 17 new ministers, completely ignoring south Bihar where NDA had suffered a crushing defeat in the assembly election last year. NDA, comprising BJP, JD(U), HAM-S and VIP in Bihar, had won 9 out of 10 seats in Darbhanga district.
Among the new BJP ministers, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Nitin Nabin, Neeraj Kumar Singh ‘Bablu’, Janak Ram, Subhash Singh, Alok Ranjan Jha, Narayan Prasad and Samrat Chaudhary are the fresh faces in the Bihar NDA government. Though Shahnawaz had earlier been a Union minister and MP, BJP brought him to state politics for the first time with an MLC seat and the industries department portfolio. Only Pramod Kumar had been a minister in the previous NDA governments.
Nitish brought back Sanjay Kumar Jha, Shrawan Kumar, Madan Sahni and Lesi Singh as ministers and made Jayant Raj the youngest member of his cabinet. He also rewarded Zama Khan and Sumit Singh for showing loyalty to him. Zama joined JD(U) after winning the lone seat for BSP in Bihar while Independent MLA Sumit had extended unconditional support to Nitish after the election results gave the opposition Mahagathbandhan a fighting strength of 110 MLAs against 125 of the NDA besides 5 AIMIM members in the 243-member legislative assembly. Nitish also inducted retired IPS officer Sunil Kumar as the excise and prohibition department minister at the time when his government has been questioned by the opposition over the success of liquor ban in the state.
Overall, the selection of new ministers, both by BJP and JD(U), also reflects their eagerness to consolidate and strengthen their caste base electorally. While BJP played its Muslim card in Shahnawaz, JD(U) made Zama its minority community face in the ministry. Caste-wise, 4 Rajputs, 2 Brahmins, 2 Kushwahas, 2 from Vaishya, 2 Muslims and one each from Kayastha, Kurmi, fisherman, Dalit and scheduled caste found berths, with no Bhumihar among the 17 new ministers.
What left the political analysts baffled was three ministers from Gopalganj district alone, which has six assembly constituencies. Besides Subhash Singh, BJP made Janak Ram, a former MP but not a member of either House, a minister, which fuelled speculation of filling the 12 MLC seats from the governor’s quota soon. Building construction department minister Ashok Choudhary is also not a member of either House. Sunil from JD(U) is also an MLA from Gopalganj district, which had elected 4 out of 6 candidates from NDA.
On regional political matrix, the choice of Sumit, an MLA from Chakai in Jamui district, and Jayant Raj from Amarpur in adjoining Banka district is being seen as a JD(U) move to checkmate LJP chief Chirag Paswan, who is the MP from Jamui and had immensely damaged Nitish’s party in the 2020 polls. JD(U) could win only 43 seats compared to 74 by BJP and 4 each by HAM(S) and Vikassheel Insaan Party of Mukesh Sahani, who is already a minister in the Nitish cabinet.
RJD spokesman Mritunjay Tiwari said the cabinet expansion was made as preparations for the mid-term assembly election, which is imminent in Bihar.