Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday expanded his Cabinet by inducting eight Ministers. Five of them are MLAs while three are MLCs. The new Ministers are: Sanjay Jha, Neeraj Kumar, Shyam Rajak, Bima Bharti, Ashok Chaudhury, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Laxmeshwar Rai and Ram Sevak Singh.
Mr. Sanjay Jha, a long time close confidante of Mr. Kumar, was recently elected as MLC. He wanted to contest the Lok Sabha election from Darbhanga but the seat had gone to the alliance partner BJP under the seat-sharing pact with the NDA.
Mr. Neeraj Kumar (MLC) was party spokesman and had campaigned hard for the victory of Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh contesting the Lok Sabha election from Munger. The Bihar CM took caste composition into consideration in the expansion with the new Ministers coming from upper, Other Backward and Extremely Backward Castes as well.
None from the BJP or the Lok Janshakti Party were inducted into the Cabinet in the latest expansion. With this, the strength of the Cabinet had reached 33 against the permitted 36 in the 243-member Assembly.
The State BJP leaders were present at the ceremony but refused to make any comment on why they were denied berths in the expansion. “It’s the discretion of the Chief Minister,” quipped a BJP leader preferring anonymity.
Bihar CM Nitish expands Cabinet by inducting 8 Ministers. 5 MLAs and 3 MLCs
