Bihar Cabinet expansion: Nitish Kumar retains Home Ministry; Tejashwi Yadav gets Health

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Patna, Aug 16:
Bihar
Chief
Minister
Nitish
Kumar
retained
the
all-important
home
department,
giving
him
direct
control
over
the
state
police,
as
portfolios
were
on
Tuesday
allocated
in
the
new
cabinet.

Kumar
has
also
kept
with
himself
general
administration,
cabinet
secretariat,
election
and
“any
other
departments
not
assigned
to
others”,
said
an
official
communication.

Deputy
CM
Tejashwi
Prasad
Yadav
has
got
key
portfolios
like
health,
road
construction,
urban
housing
and
development
and
rural
works.
Yadav’s
elder
brother
Tej
Pratap
Yadav
has
been
given
environment,
forestry
and
climate
change.

New
Bihar
cabinet
takes
oath;
RJD
gets
the
biggest
share

Besides
the
CM
and
the
deputy
CM,
only
Vijay
Kumar
Chaudhary
(finance,
commercial
tax
and
parliamentary
affairs)
and
Bijendra
Yadav
(power
and
planning
and
development)
have
got
more
than
one
portfolios.

Earlier,
31
ministers
took
oath,
with
the
RJD
getting
a
lion’s
share,
and
care
having
been
taken
to
represent
all
sections
of
the
society,
including
the
minorities.

Among
the
ministers
who
took
oath,
16
were
from
RJD,
11
from
Chief
Minister
Nitish
Kumar’s
JD(U),
two
from
Congress,
one
from
ex-CM
Jitan
Ram
Manjhi’s
Hindustani
Awam
Morcha
(HAM)
and
one
Independent.

The
number
of
Muslims
in
the
new
cabinet
is
five,
up
from
only
one
in
the
previous
NDA
government
that
fell
last
week
after
the
chief
minister
severed
ties
with
the
BJP.

The
RJD
has,
predictably,
given
a
significant
number
of
seven
berths
to
Yadavs,
including
Tej
Pratap
Yadav,
the
elder
son
of
party
president
Lalu
Prasad.
It,
however,
also
gave
representation
to
the
upper
castes
in
keeping
with
the
wider
social
outreach
by
deputy
CM
Tejashwi
Yadav.

Among
those
from
the
RJD
quota
were
Kartikeya
Singh,
a
Bhumihar
MLC,
and
Sudhakar
Singh,
a
Rajput,
whose
father
Jagadanand
Singh
is
currently
the
state
president.
The
JD(U)
has
retained
its
ministers
from
the
previous
dispensation.
The
Congress
is
represented
by
a
Dalit
and
a
Muslim.

Know all about

Nitish Kumar

Following

64629 Followers