Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the 10th time in his long political career. The oath-taking ceremony was held at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan, attended by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, who administered the oath of office and secrecy to Nitish and his new council of ministers.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, and several Union ministers, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Anupriya Patel, Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, underlining the event's political importance.
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Team Nitish: 26-member council of ministers takes charge
The oath by the chief minister was followed by the swearing-in of Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. They were followed by 24 other ministers representing different alliance partners, including Janata Dal (United), Bharatiya Janata Party, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
This new cabinet is made up of eight JD-U ministers, 14 from the BJP, two from LJP-R, and one each from HAM-S and RLM. Nine more cabinet berths will be allocated later, officials said.
The six senior ministers sworn in from the previous Nitish cabinet in the first batch included: Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar, Mangal Pandey, Dilip Kumar Jaiswal and Ashok Choudhary.
Retained leaders
Several familiar names have been retained, including Jama Khan, the only Muslim minister in the cabinet. The new inductees include Ramkripal Yadav, Shreyashi Singh, Rama Nishad, Sanjay Singh Tiger, Arun Shankar Prasad, Lakhendra Prasad Roshan, Narayan Prasad, and Sanjay Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Singh from LJP-R.
As per a report by the Hindustan Times, Deepak Prakash of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, son of Upendra Kushwaha, has been sworn in. Though he is not a member of either House, he is likely to be nominated to the Bihar Legislative Council.
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HAM-S leader Santosh Kumar Suman, who was a minister in the previous government, has retained his ministerial berth.
Women’s representation remains limited in new cabinet
In the new cabinet, there are only three women: former minister Leshi Singh and first-time ministers Shreyashi Singh and Rama Nishad. Nishad also becomes the first MLA from the Aurai constituency to find a place in the state cabinet.
