The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar cabinet expanded on Wednesday ahead of assembly polls in the state later this year. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to the 7 BJP MLAs at Raj Bhavan in the state capital, Patna.
Sanjay Saraogi, Sunil Singh, Jivesh Mishra, Raju Singh, Motilal Prasad, Krishna Kumar Mantoo, and Vijay Kumar Mandal – all from the saffron party camp took the oath as ministers.
Saraogi has been representing the Darbhanga assembly seat consecutively since 2005 while Sunil Singh is also a five-time MLA from Bihar Sharif seat with a strong influence in the Kushwaha community.
Jivesh Mishra, BJP MLA from Jale’s seat belongs to the inlfuential Bhumihar community and took the oath of office in the Maithili dialect. Raju Singh, a four-time MLA from Sahebganj seat is the Rajput face from BJP quota in the Nitish cabinet. Motilal Prasad from the Riga seat belongs to the Teli community while Krishna Kumar Mantoo from the Amnaur seat represents the Kurmi community and Vijay Kumar Mandal, a five-time MLA representing the Sikti assembly constituency belongs to the Kewat community.
Constitutionally, the Bihar cabinet can have 36 berths while currently there are 30 members including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and two Deputy Chief Ministers, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, leaving room for more adjustments.
15 ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party, 13 from Janata Dal (United), one from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and an Independent previously comprised the Nitish Kumar cabinet.
Ahead of the expansion, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the cabinet to conform with his party’s policy of ‘one person, one post’.
Jaiswal held the crucial portfolio of Revenue and Land Reform and 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 was made the party’s state unit chief replacing Deputy CM Choudhary.
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