Choudhary’s Cabinet now has the sons of three former chief ministers — Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant, Jagannath Mishra’s son Nitish Mishra, and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman. All three were sworn in on Thursday.
The NDA put up a grand show at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan for the swearing-in ceremony, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the way to the venue from the airport, Modi’s vehicle was showered with flower petals by people who lined up on both sides of the road.
Former chief minister Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, J P Nadda, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha were among those who attended the function.
After the ceremony, PM Modi was seen interacting with Nitish Kumar as well as Nishant.
Nishant, who is widely seen as the new leader of the JD(U) in Bihar after his father resigned as CM and moved to the Rajya Sabha, had earlier decided not to take up a deputy CM position. He eventually agreed to become a minister after persuasion from senior party leaders, including Rajiv Ranjan Singh, better known as Lalan Singh, sources said.
Overall, 32 ministers, 15 from the BJP, 13 from the JD(U), two from LJP(RV) and one each from HAM(S) and RLM, took oath. The 32, added with CM Samrat Choudhary and two deputies from JD(U), Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Vijay Kumar Choudhary, the Cabinet is just one short of its maximum permitted strength of 36.
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Senior BJP leader and former health minister Mangal Pandey was not inducted into the new Cabinet, but officials said he might be given a key organisational position at the national level.
Together, BJP and JD(U) sought to strike a social balance by giving one-fourth representation to EBC with nine ministers (five from BJP and four from JD(U)). Seven Scheduled Caste leaders also became ministers, including one each from HAM(S) and LJP(RV). The OBC Luv-Kush (Kurni-Koeri) combination also got four ministers, two each from each community.
The Cabinet has nine upper caste ministers, including four Rajputs, three Bhumihars and two Brahmins. JD(U)’s Zaman Khan is the only Muslim member of the Cabinet. The Cabinet has four women ministers, two each from BJP and JD(U).
RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha’s son, Deepak Prakash, returned as minister.
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The ministers sworn in from BJP were Ram Kripal Yadav, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Nitish Mishra, Mithilesh Tiwari, Rama Nishad, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dilip Jaiswal, Pramod Kumar, Lakhendra Pawan Roshan, Sanjay Singh Tiger, Shailendra Kumar, Nand Kishore Ram, Ramchandra Prasad, Arun Shanker Prasad and Shreyasi Singh.
JD(U) ministers were Nishant Kumar, Shravan Kumar, Ashok Choudhary, Lesi Singh, Madan Sahani, Sunil Kumar, Zaman Khan, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Sheela Kumari, Damodar Raut, Shailesh or Bulo Mandal and Ratnesh Sada. LJP(RV) ministers include Sanjay Singh and Sanjay Paswan.
