Patna: The portfolio allocation was finalized on Tuesday, less than a week after the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Grand Alliance government in Bihar was sworn in.
While the RJD got more berths, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar retained the key portfolios of Home, Vigilance and Personnel – departments that look after law and order and administration. A total of 31 ministers (excluding CM and deputy CM) were inducted into the cabinet on Tuesday: 16 from RJD, 11 from JD(U), two from Congress, one from Hindustani Awam Morcha (Hum) of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi. and an independent.
While Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav was made in-charge of important departments like health, road construction, urban development and housing, and rural works, other RJD leaders were given relatively lighter portfolios like tourism, industry, cooperative and public health engineering.
Education, which was earlier with the JD(U), was an exception and went to Chandrashekhar, the RJD MLA from Madhepura.
Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad, was made minister of environment, forests and climate change – a department with limited scope in Bihar that was left with only 6 per cent forest cover after it was carved out of Jharkhand in 2000.
As health minister in the JD(U)-RJD government between 2015 and 2017, Tej Pratap had clarified embarrassment To grand alliance (grand alliance).
In JD(U) affairs, Sanjay Jha, a close confidant of CM Nitish Kumar, maintains water resources, an important department in flood-prone Bihar. JDU MLA from Nalanda, Shravan Kumar, has been made in-charge of the all-important rural development department and MLC Ashok Choudhary in-charge of the building construction department. Supaul MLA Bijendra Yadav retained the electricity department.
Finance, another key department that was earlier held by former BJP deputy CM Tarakishore Prasad, was given along with commercial taxes to Vijay Choudhary, the JD(U) MLA from Sarai Ranjan.
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Emphasis on ‘Social Justice’
The impression of CM Nitish Kumar’s emphasis on representation of all communities in the new cabinet is visible. Leaders from the Muslim and Yadav communities – who are seen as the main voters of the RJD – got 5 and 8 portfolios respectively.
There are also 3 Kushwahas, 6 Dalits and 3 ministers in the cabinet who identify as EBC (Extremely Backward Classes).
Six berths went to representatives who come from the upper castes, but the cabinet is dominated by groups that traditionally vote for the RJD and JD(U) – an attempt to amplify the parties’ message of “social justice”.
Even the Congress, which had only two cabinet seats, decided to make a Dalit and a Muslim a minister.
No new JD(U) face
The allocation of portfolios this time shows CM Nitish Kumar in a weaker position than in 2015, when the RJD and JD(U) had earlier joined hands to form a coalition government in Bihar.
In 2015, the Grand Alliance government formed after RJD got 80 seats and JD(U) 71 seats had 12 ministers each from both the parties. That equation has changed now – RJD has 17 ministers while JD(U) has 12 ministers, including CM and deputy CM. In the 2020 Assembly elections, RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats, followed by BJP with 74 and its then ally JD(U) with 43.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) last week, did not promote any new faces of his party – all 11 JD(U) ministers in the cabinet of the then BJP. were part. -JD(U) government, CM with Nitish.
JD(U) sources told ThePrint that there was talk that some ministers could be dropped to make way for MLC Upendra Kushwaha, who is the party’s Kushwaha face and chairman of the JD(U)’s National Parliamentary Board. Is.
However, it seems that the Chief Minister has shied away from such a move. According to sources, such a decision could have created displeasure among the MLAs as the cabinet already includes two MLCs.
Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav made some notable inclusions like Madhubani MLA Samir Mahaseth (a Bania) and MLC Karthik Singh (a Bhumihar).
Ramgarh MLA Sudhakar Singh, son of RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, has been made agriculture minister.
Nitish Kumar’s weakness!
In an expansion exercise, Nitish Kumar’s zero-tolerance stance towards allegations of corruption and other crimes against his ministers appears to be weakening.
After taking oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the second time in 2005, Nitish Kumar dropped his close aide Jitan Ram Manjhi from the cabinet due to the vigilance case against him.
Manjhi was inducted into the cabinet in 2008 only after his name was approved by the state vigilance department.
Now, Nitish is leading the government with three controversial RJD leaders as ministers – Lalit Kumar Yadav, Surendra Prasad Yadav and Ramanand Yadav.
Darbhanga Rural MLA Lalit Kumar Yadav is returning to the government after 21 years.
He was a junior minister in Rabri Devi Mantralaya until 2001, when he was forced to resign. charged up for allegedly illegally detaining and torturing a truck driver and his Dalit assistant. But the complainant in the case, who had claimed on camera that Yadav had harassed him when the truck, owned by an aide of the RJD leader, went missing, withdrew his statement in the court.
Yadav, who is now facing only one criminal case, was also accused of involvement in the murder of a local businessman Hiralal Paswan in 2016, according to his election affidavit. While the family of the latter accused Yadav of There was a role in his death, the RJD leader denied the allegation.
Seven-time RJD MLA from Belaganj in Gaya district Surendra Prasad Yadav is also a former MP from Jehanabad. In early 2003, he was forced to step down as a minister in the Rabri Devi government. charged with The alleged abduction and torture of a businessman.
According to his 2020 election affidavit, Yadav is facing at least nine criminal cases. In June 2022, he was charged up For allegedly disclosing the identity of a minor gang rape victim in 2018 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO).
According to his 2020 election affidavit, Ramanand Yadav, RJD MLA from Fatuha, is facing four criminal cases. These include cases of alleged extortion and criminal intimidation.
When the Trio Didn’t Make the Cut in 2015It was said that this was due to CM Nitish Kumar’s insistence on leading a cabinet with ministers with a “clean image”.
Speaking about the presence of leaders with criminal background in the new cabinet, JD(U) state president Umesh Kushwaha told ThePrint, “All of them have been elected by the people and they have not been convicted by the court. Nitish Kumar will run the government, the Chief Minister of Bihar never compromised on his principles in governance.
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)
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