Bihar cabinet expansion: The newly formed cabinet in Bihar expanded on Tuesday when 31 ministers took oath, with the RJD getting a lion’s share. The swearing-in ceremony was held at 11:30 am at the Raj Bhavan.
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.
Bihar cabinet expansion: Full list of new ministers
A total of 31 ministers - 16 from RJD, 11 from JD(U), two from Congress, one from Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and one independent candidate were inducted in Bihar's cabinet today.
New minisers from RJD
1. Tej Pratap Yadav
2 Alok Mehta
3. Surendra Prasad Yadav
4. Ramanand Yadav
5. Kumar Sarvajeet
6. Lalit Yadav
7. Samir Kumar Mahaseth
8. Chandrashekhar
9. Jitendra Kumar Rai
10. Anita Devi
11. Sudhakar Singh
12. Md Israil Mansuri
13. Surendra Ram
14. Kartikeya Singh
15. Shahnawaz Alam
16. Shamim Ahmed
New ministers from JD(U)
1. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary
2. Bijendra Yadav
3. Shravan Kumar
4. Ashok Choudhary
5. Leshi Singh
6. Sanjay Jha
7. Madan Sahni
8. Sheela Kumari
9. Sunil Kumar
10. Mohd Zama Khan
11. Jayant Raj
New ministers from Congress
1. Afaque Alam
2. Murari Gautam
New minister from HAM
Santosh Kumar Suman
Independent
Sumit Kumar Singh
Meanwhile, the new Nitish Kumar led-Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar will go for a floor test on August 24 to prove its majority in the state assembly.
The session was initially under question as Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha refused to quit and prompted the ruling alliance to move a no-confidence motion against Sinha.
Also Read | Bihar politics: Pashupati Kumar Paras debunks possibility of RJD MPs joining JD(U)
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