Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar may expand his Cabinet soon with new Ministers from allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress taking oath. Soon after returning from Rajgir on July 19, Mr. Kumar met RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his younger son and Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. The meeting lasted over 30 minutes triggering speculation over Cabinet expansion.
Earlier on June 16, JD(U) MLA Ratnesh Sada had taken oath as new Minister after Santosh Kumar Suman, son of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi had resigned from the Cabinet. Mr. Manjhi with four MLAs and one MLC has now switched his loyalty to the BJP-led NDA.
The Bihar Cabinet currently has 33-members against the prescribed limit of 36. During the first meeting of non-BJP Opposition parties in Patna on June 23, top Congress leaders had enquired about Cabinet expansion with the CM and State Congress president Akhilesh Singh had intervened saying the party wanted two more berths. A video of this conversation had gone viral on social media.
The Congress has 19 MLAs in the 243-member Legislative Assembly and currently its two MLAs Afaque Alam and Murari Lal Gautam are part of Mr. Kumar’s Cabinet. “Allies were allocated one Cabinet berth per five legislators. We have 19 and so claimed four berths. The JD(U) has 45 MLAs and got 12 Ministers while RJD with 79 MLAs has 19 and the Speaker post,” a senior State Congress leader told The Hindu.
On July 19, Mr. Kumar after returning from Rajgir in Nalanda district where he had inaugurated the month-long Malmas Mela (fair), went to meet Mr. Prasad and Deputy CM Yadav at the 10, Circular Road residence of former CM Rabri Devi where the two live. The three leaders held a closed-door meeting for half an hour and are said to have discussed names of RJD leaders who could be inducted into Cabinet. Sources in JD(U) told The Hindu that Cabinet expansion will be done soon or it could be delayed for a month because of the inauspicious month of Malmas.
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“RJD wants two of its leaders to be inducted into the Cabinet while Congress party too has been putting pressure for two more berths. However, the prescribed upper limit of the Nitish Cabinet is only 36. Let’s see how and who could be accommodated,” said a senior JD(U) leader known to be close to the CM.
Meanwhile, names of Vijay Shanker Dubey, Madan Mohan Jha, Ajit Sharma and Sameer Singh are doing the rounds in Congress party circles. From RJD, names of Master Kartik, close associate of incarcerated bahubali (strongman) MLA Anant Singh, and Chetan Anand, son of former bahubali MLA Anand Mohan Singh and RJD MLA from Sheohar constituency, are being mentioned for induction.
“Some reshuffle in the Cabinet too may take place. The portfolio of Education Minister Chandrashekhar may change,” said the JD(U) source. Mr. Chandrashekhar, an RJD MLA from Madhepura, had hit headlines recently because of his row with the department’s Additional Chief secretary K.K. Pathak which caused embarrassment to the Nitish government.
