Following the formation of a Mahagathbandhan in Bihar by Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav, all eyes are now on the cabinet expansion scheduled for Tuesday, August 16 at 11:30 a.m.
On August 9, the Janata Dal (United) opted officially to break relations with the BJP, and Nitish Kumar’s party merged with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in a startling power shift.
Nitish Kumar, who took the oath as Bihar’s chief minister for the eighth time on August 10 in a low-key ceremony at Raj Bhavan, is expected to keep the crucial Home portfolio, while the RJD may take over most of the departments that were previously held by the BJP.
Jitan Ram Manjhi Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is expected to receive one ministerial post, whereas Congress, which is a member of the Grand Alliance, is expected to receive two cabinet birth.
31 MLAs, including one independent, are expected today to take the oath of office as ministers.
Sumit Kumar Singh, an independent MLA from Chakai in Jamui district, was the former Nitish Kumar-led cabinet’s science and technology minister.
Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Vijay Chaudhary, Shrawan Kumar, Ashok Chaudhary, Madan Sahni, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Jama Khan, Sumit Kumar Singh, and Leshi Singh are among the possible ministers from the JD(U).
Tej Pratap Yadav, Surendra Yadav, Shashi Bhushan Singh, Bhudev Chaudhary, Anita Devi, Kumar Sarvjeet, Alok Mehta, Shahnawaz Alam, Sudhakar Singh, and Samir Mahaseth are among the RJD ministerial hopefuls.
Shakeel Ahmad and Rajeev Kumar of the Congress party are the frontrunners for ministerial positions. The eldest son of former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Santosh Suman Manjhi of HAM, is also expected to be sworn into the government on Tuesday.
Though the RJD quota would most likely result in a majority Yadav representation in the cabinet, the party is also attempting to accommodate non-Yadav Other Backward Class (OBC) politicians and Dalits in the ministerial council.
CM Nitish Kumar left the NDA for the first time in 2013, after Narendra Modi was elected as the alliance’s Prime Ministerial candidate, and then left his partnership with the RJD-Congress combo in 2017 to rejoin the NDA.
What started as a spat between the two partners turned into a full-fledged schism when Nitish Kumar accused the BJP of attempting to destroy his party and suspected former government minister and JD(U) leader RCP Singh of working with the saffron camp. Singh, a close assistant to Nitish Kumar, resigned shortly after being charged with corruption and stated that joining the BJP was an option.
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