32 join Samrat cabinet in Bihar with carefully crafted caste calculus

Among the inductees 15 are from the BJP, 13 from the JD(U), two from the LJP(RV), one each from the HAM(S) and RLM.

The Samrat Choudhary cabinet in Bihar inducted 32 new ministers in an expansion pending after the oath of the chief minister and his two deputies. Among the inductees 15 are from the BJP, 13 from the JD(U), two from the LJP(RV), one each from the HAM(S) and RLM.

JD(U) leaders Shravan Kumar, Nishant Kumar and Lesi Singh, and BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Sinha and Dilip Jaiswal take oath during the swearing-in ceremony of the Bihar cabinet of the NDA government at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Thursday. (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Nitin Nabin, former Bihar CM and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar and a host of Union ministers and other dignitaries attended the event.

State governor Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain administered the oath of office to the ministers who took the oath in batches of five and six, taking the total strength of the cabinet to 35. Bihar can have a maximum of 36 ministers and one berth has been kept vacant.

The portfolios for the ministers will be distributed later, likely by late Thursday or Friday.

The first batch of five ministers who took the oath included Shrawan Kumar, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dilip Jaiswal, Lesi Singh and Nishant Kumar. Nishant sought blessings from his father before taking the oath.

A significant aspect of the cabinet expansion is that it includes three sons of former Bihar CMs from three different parties. While Nishant Kumar making his debut as minister without being a member of any House is the son of Nitish Kumar, BJP’s Nitish Mishra is the son of late Dr Jagannath Mishra and Santosh Kumar Suman is the son of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Another significant aspect is the gradual generational shift in Bihar with a blend of experienced and fresh faces. While the previous Nitish cabinet, sworn in on November 20, had 10 new faces (including eight from the BJP and two from the LJP-RV), the Samrat cabinet maintained the trend by including seven more first-timers.

Among the rookie ministers, four are from the BJP (Mithilesh Tiwari, Nand Kishore Ram, Shailendra Kumar and Ramchandra Ram) and three from the JD(U) (Nishant Kumar, Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal and Shweta Gupta), while new faces inducted in the Nitish cabinet have also been retained.

There are just five women in the cabinet: two from the BJP and three from the JD(U). The notable omission from the previous cabinet was West Bengal in-charge and former minister Mangal Pandey, who is tipped for a national role. Two other BJP ministers in the previous Nitish cabinet who could not make it include Narayan Prasad and Surendra Mehta. Nineteen ministers from the previous cabinet have been repeated.

Chief minister Samrat Choudhary had taken the oath with two Deputy CMs -- Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Yadav -- on April 15 at a simple function at the Raj Bhawan, while the expansion was kept on hold until the completion of the elections in four states and a Union Territory.

Soon after the BJP’s huge victory in West Bengal and an emphatic triumph in Assam, the green light for the Bihar cabinet expansion was given.

Caste in Cabinet

Samrat Choudhary-led NDA government has maintained a mosaic of castes in its cabinet, suggesting that the government is inclusive of all sections. The cabinet includes representation from the general category, OBC, EBC and SC categories as well as the Muslim community, reflecting a careful “social engineering” formula.

Of the 15 ministers inducted into the cabinet from the BJP, there are four from the extremely backward class, three from the backward class, two from Dalit and six from the upper caste.

From the JD(U) quota, there are four ministers each from the OBC and the EBC, three Dalits and one upper caste and one Muslim. From the LJP(RV), two ministers are Dalits and upper castes, while a Dalit and an OBC from HAM-S and RLM got berths respectively.

Overall, the NDA cabinet has engaged in social engineering to give representation to all sections with an eye on future electoral needs as it has also adjusted ministers from the districts bordering neighbouring Uttar Pradesh which is slated for assembly polls early next year.