32 ministers, including Nitish’s son, inducted in Bihar CM Samrat’s cabinet

Lt Gen (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain administered the oath of office to the ministers, which brings the Samrat cabinet’s strength to 35

32 ministers including Janata Dal United (JDU) convenor Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar, were inducted into the Bihar cabinet led by chief minister Samrat Choudhary.

The first batch of five ministers, who took oath, included Shrawan Kumar, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dilip Jaiswal, Lesi Singh and Nishant. (ANI photo)

15 ministers were inducted from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 13 from the JD-U, two from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJP-RV) and one each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) HAM-S and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).

Lt Gen (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain administered the oath of office to the ministers, which brings the Samrat cabinet’s strength to 35. The portfolio allocation will take place later.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Nabin, former CM and Rajya Sabha member Nitish Kumar, BJP general secretary BL Santosh were present at the swearing in ceremony.

The first batch of five ministers, who took oath, included Shrawan Kumar, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dilip Jaiswal, Lesi Singh and Nishant.

CM Samrat led cabinet have seven first time lawmakers inducted including BJP’s Mithilesh Tiwari, Nand Kishore Ram, Shailendra Kumar and Ramchandra Ram and JD-U’s Nishant, Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal and Shweta Gupta).

There are only four women in the cabinet - one from the BJP and three from the JD-U. Bihar can have a maximum of 36 ministers and one berth has been kept vacant. The notable omission from the previous cabinet was West Bengal incharge and former minister Mangal Pandey, who could be considered for a national role.

Two other BJP ministers in the previous Nitish cabinet who were excluded include Narayan Prasad and Surendra Mehta.

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