Bihar CM Nitish Kumar likely to expand his cabinet on August 16 | Patna News
[ad_1]
PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is likely to expand his cabinet on August 16, a week before seeking a trust vote on the floor of the assembly on August 24.
Sources in the grand alliance said JD(U) and RJD each would have 14 ministers, but Lalu Prasad’s party would get more departments than Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). In case the CPI, one of the three Left parties which have extended their unconditional support to the coalition government, declined to join the Nitish-led government, the RJD would get one more cabinet berth. The CPI-ML, which has 12 MLAs, and the CPM (2) have already declared that they would not join the government but extend outside support.
The Congress, which has 19 MLAs, would have three ministerial berths, while Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S), which left the NDA along with the JD(U) would get one cabinet berth. Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM-S has four MLAs in the assembly and Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman would be sworn-in as a cabinet minister. Suman was the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribes Welfare minister in the previous Nitish-led NDA government.
The Congress in-charge for Bihar Bhakta Charan Das on Sunday said two Congress MLAs would take oath as ministers on August 16, and one more legislator would be inducted when the next cabinet expansion happens. “The number of ministerial berths the Congress in the Grand Alliance government has been finalised. The Congress will get a total of three ministerial berths,” he said.
“As per the formula reached between the JD(U) and the RJD, both major allies of the seven-party grand alliance, 20 to 21 departments would be under the RJD ministers while 18 departments will be at the disposal of JD(U) ministers,” a senior JD(U) leader, who didn’t want to be quoted, told TOI on Sunday.
Sources said, the post of the speaker would go in favour of the RJD, while JD(U) will put up its leader on the chair of the state legislative council’s chairperson. Former minister and RJD’s MLA Awadh Bihari Choudhary and JD(U)’s MLC Prof Ram Bachan Roy have emerged as frontrunners for the post of speaker in the assembly and the chairman in the council, respectively. JD(U) has, in fact, finalised the name of Roy for the council’s chairperson.
The RJD leaders whose names were floating as the probable ministers called on the deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at his mother Rabri Devi’s residence, while those from the JD(U) met the CM Nitish Kumar. Sources said the JD(U) may drop a few ministers from the last cabinet.
RJD’s Madhepura MLA and former minister Chandra Shekhar who called on Tejashwi at 10, Circular Road, in the state capital here, said he was not sure about being called for taking oath as minister. “But my name has been floated by the media as one of the probable ministers”, he said. Chandra Shekhar was disaster management minister in the previous grand alliance government in between 2015 to 2017.
Sources in the grand alliance said JD(U) and RJD each would have 14 ministers, but Lalu Prasad’s party would get more departments than Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). In case the CPI, one of the three Left parties which have extended their unconditional support to the coalition government, declined to join the Nitish-led government, the RJD would get one more cabinet berth. The CPI-ML, which has 12 MLAs, and the CPM (2) have already declared that they would not join the government but extend outside support.
The Congress, which has 19 MLAs, would have three ministerial berths, while Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S), which left the NDA along with the JD(U) would get one cabinet berth. Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM-S has four MLAs in the assembly and Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman would be sworn-in as a cabinet minister. Suman was the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribes Welfare minister in the previous Nitish-led NDA government.
The Congress in-charge for Bihar Bhakta Charan Das on Sunday said two Congress MLAs would take oath as ministers on August 16, and one more legislator would be inducted when the next cabinet expansion happens. “The number of ministerial berths the Congress in the Grand Alliance government has been finalised. The Congress will get a total of three ministerial berths,” he said.
“As per the formula reached between the JD(U) and the RJD, both major allies of the seven-party grand alliance, 20 to 21 departments would be under the RJD ministers while 18 departments will be at the disposal of JD(U) ministers,” a senior JD(U) leader, who didn’t want to be quoted, told TOI on Sunday.
Sources said, the post of the speaker would go in favour of the RJD, while JD(U) will put up its leader on the chair of the state legislative council’s chairperson. Former minister and RJD’s MLA Awadh Bihari Choudhary and JD(U)’s MLC Prof Ram Bachan Roy have emerged as frontrunners for the post of speaker in the assembly and the chairman in the council, respectively. JD(U) has, in fact, finalised the name of Roy for the council’s chairperson.
The RJD leaders whose names were floating as the probable ministers called on the deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at his mother Rabri Devi’s residence, while those from the JD(U) met the CM Nitish Kumar. Sources said the JD(U) may drop a few ministers from the last cabinet.
RJD’s Madhepura MLA and former minister Chandra Shekhar who called on Tejashwi at 10, Circular Road, in the state capital here, said he was not sure about being called for taking oath as minister. “But my name has been floated by the media as one of the probable ministers”, he said. Chandra Shekhar was disaster management minister in the previous grand alliance government in between 2015 to 2017.
[ad_2]
Source link
