Seven ministers took oath in Raj Bhawan on Wednesday as part of the Bihar cabinet expansion. Seven new MLAs including Sanjay Saraogi, Sunil Kumar, Jibesh Mishra and Vijay Kumar Mandal took oath as cabinet ministers in presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
At a ceremony held in the Raj Bhavan, Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office to the new inductees who raised the strength of the Cabinet to 36. Those who took the oath of office were Jibesh Kumar, Sanjay Saraogi, Sunil Kumar, Raju Kumar Singh, Moti Lal Prasad, Vijay Kumar Mandal and Krishna Kumar Mantu.
Earlier in the day, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the Cabinet to conform with his party's policy of 'one person, one post'. The development comes after BJP's state President Dilip Jaiswal resigned as Revenue Minister. The cabinet expansion is happening ahead of the Budget Session in the Bihar Assembly that is slated to commence on Friday. The budget session of the Bihar assembly will be held from 28 February and sources said that 7 ministers may join the new cabinet.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Jaiswal stated that he is going to resign from the post of Revenue Minister. “One person, one post' is the principle on which the party works. I am thankful that the central leadership has given me the responsibility of the party's state unit. Cabinet expansion is the prerogative of the Chief Minister,” he said.
Sources stated that six new BJP MLAs are expected to be inducted, while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will take a final call on adding new JD(U) faces.
List of ministers who joined new cabinet
- Raju Singh
- Krishna Kumar Mantu
- Vijay Mandal
- Jivesh Mishra
- Sanjay Sarawagi
- Motilal
- Dr Sunil
After the meeting between JP Nadda and Nitish Kumar on Tuesday, an agreement was reached on the expansion of the cabinet.
According to the total number of members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, there can be a maximum of 36 ministers. Currently there are 30 members in the cabinet. Thus 6 minister posts are still vacant.
The Bihar cabinet has a total of 15 ministers including two deputy chief ministers from the BJP. While 13 ministers including the Chief Minister are from the JDU and 1 from the Hum Party and one independent, there are a total of 30 ministers.
Among the new ministers, 3 or 4 ministers can be made from BJP and 2 from JDU and 1 from Bhumihar, 1 from Rajput and from backward-very backward communities, sources added.
(With inputs from Nitish Chandra)