Bihar cabinet expansion: Nitish Kumar's son, 31 others take oath
What's the story
Bihar's political landscape has changed with a major cabinet expansion. On Thursday, 32 leaders from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) took their oaths as ministers at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, among other senior central ministers. Governor Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain administered the oaths.
Political debut
Nishant Kumar inducted as minister
Among the new ministers is Nishant Kumar, the son of former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. His entry into active politics comes after his father resigned as CM to take a Rajya Sabha seat. An engineering graduate, Nishant had initially shunned political posts and preferred to rise through party ranks as a worker. However, Janata Dal (United) leaders had been pushing for his induction into government.
Cabinet distribution
BJP emerges as biggest gainer
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the biggest gainer in this cabinet expansion, getting 15 ministerial berths. The Janata Dal (United) got 13 berths. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) got two ministerial berths, while Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha got one each. Sanjay Paswan and Sanjay Singh took oath from LJP(R), Santosh Suman from HAM, and Deepak Prakash from RLM were also inducted into the cabinet.
Leadership change
Know about Bihar assembly election results
The cabinet expansion comes after the NDA's stellar performance in the Bihar assembly elections, winning 202 of 243 seats. The Mahagathbandhan was reduced to just 35 seats. Within the alliance, the BJP won 89 seats, JD(U) secured 85, LJP (Ram Vilas) won 19, HAM (Secular) took five and RLM claimed four. Samrat Choudhary became Bihar's first BJP chief minister last month.