Bihar Ministry Expansion: In Bihar, seven new ministers were inducted into the Nitish Kumar led cabinet in an expansion of councils of ministers today. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to seven MLAs from the BJP quota in the oath ceremony held this evening at Rajbhavan in Patna.
The new ministers who subscribed to the oath are Sanjay Saraogi, Krishna Kumar Mantu, Dr Sunil Kumar, Motilal Prasad, Raju Kumar Singh, Vijay Kumar Mandal and Jibesh Kumar.
With this expansion, the number of Nitish Kumar-led cabinet has reached 36 including Chief Minister.
The cabinet expansion has taken place in an election year when Bihar will go to the assembly polls later in the year. Four MLAs who got berth in the cabinet are from Mithila region which is assumed as the pocket borough of BJP in terms of performance in elections. Jibesh Kumar and Raju Kumar Singh are former ministers but all other five members are new faces who got the chance the first time.
The number of representatives of the BJP in the cabinet has now reached 21 while JD(U) has 13 members. One Cabinet minister belongs to Jitan Ram Manjhi led Hindustani Awam Morcha. In Bihar, the NDA has five constituents in the alliance.
Earlier in the day, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the Cabinet to conform with his party’s policy of ‘one person, one post’.
