New Bihar cabinet takes oath; RJD gets the biggest share

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Patna, Aug 16: Around 31 ministers took oath on Tuesday in the new cabinet of the Nitish Kumar government, which recently broke away from the NDA and joined RJD-led alliance.

Among the newly sworn-in ministers, 16 are from Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD. Kumar’s JD(U) has 11 ministers in the new cabinet while two ministers are from the Congress.

Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav’s brother and Lalu Yadav’s elder son, was also sworn in on Tuesday as one of the ministers. The state cabinet can have a maximum of 36 ministers. The next step now would be distribution of portfolios.

It is expected that JD(U) will retain its existing ministries such as Home, Vigilance, Education, Building Construction, Minority Affairs, Social Welfare, and Water Resources. Meanwhile, RJD is set to get ministries such as Finance, Commercial Taxes, Health, Road Construction, Disaster Management, and Environment and Forest.

BJP top brass to hold meeting with party’s Bihar core group today

From the RJD camp, the list of probable ministers includes Tej Pratap Yadav, Surendra Yadav, Ramanand Yadav, Bhai Virendra, Lalit Yadav, Anita Devi, Kumar Sarvjeet, Alok Mehta, Mohammed Shamim, Shahnawaz Alam, Sudhakar Singh, and Samir Mahaseth or Sanjay Gupta.

Last week, Nitish Kumar had quit the ruling coalition with the BJP in a surprise move. He returned to the Mahagathbandhan, which he had left in 2017, as differences with the BJP peaked.

In the 243-member assembly, the JD(U) has 43 seats in total. The RJD – meanwhile – has almost double the number of MLAs.