2 min readPatnaMay 6, 2026 07:37 PM IST
First published on: May 6, 2026 at 07:34 PM IST
With the Bihar cabinet set to expand on Thursday, Nishant Kumar, former chief minister Nitish Kumar’s son, is likely to be among the two dozen new ministers from the BJP, the JD(U) and three smaller allies – LJP (RV), HAM(S) and RLM.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and his predecessor, Union Health Minister JP Nadda, are among those expected to attend the ceremony, besides Nitish. The ceremony would take place at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.
Modi and Shah were not able to attend CM Samrat Choudhary’s swearing-in ceremony on April 15. Samrat had taken the oath along with two deputies, both from the JD(U) — Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav.
BJP and JD(U) have agreed on a 50:50 formula, with 16 ministers each, while LJP (RV) would get two ministers and HAM(S) and RLM would get one each. However, the BJP and the JD(U) might not want to exhaust their complete quota in Thursday’s cabinet expansion. Sources said while the BJP might get 13 new ministers, the JD(U) is likely to have 12 new ministers.
Probable names from the BJP include Vijay Kumar Sinha, Mangal Pandey, Sanjay Singh Tiger, Shreyasi Singh, Sanjeev Chourasia, Nitish Mishra and Krishna Kumar Mantu. Sinha, who was deputy CM in the previous government, is likely to get a key department.
Likely names from the JD(U) include Nishant Kumar, Shravan Kumar, Ashok Choudhary, Madan Sahani, Bulo Mandal, Zama Khan, Sheela Mandal, Lesi Singh, Ratnesh Sada, Lakhindra Paswan, Sangeeta Kumari and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha. Both the BJP and the JD(U) have sought to maintain regional and social balance with a focus on EBCs.
LJP (RV) is likely to stick to Aanjay Singh and Sanjay Paswan, RLM to Deepak Prakash, party chief Upendra Kushwaha’s son, and HAM (S) would likely go for Santosh Kumar Suman again for a ministerial berth.
