JD-U, BJP swap health, edu depts after 2 decades amid challenges, hopes

Bihar's cabinet sees BJP-JD(U) ministry swap, with JD(U) taking health and BJP handling education, aiming for reforms amid ongoing challenges.

The Bihar cabinet expansion has seen a rare BJP-JD(U) swap of ministries. For the first time in two decades, the two major parties of the ruling NDA bloc have exchanged health and education portfolios. Now, the JD(U) has health and the BJP has the education department, which is split into two – education and higher education.

JD-U, BJP swap health, edu depts after 2 decades amid challenges, hopes

Two young first-timers – Nishant Kumar and Mithilesh Tiwari – will manage the health and education ministries, while Sanjay Singh Tiger, also among the young ministers, will take care of the higher education department.

While the health department remained with the BJP since November 2005 and went to the most experienced party leaders, the education department always stayed with the JD(U). It was bifurcated with the creation of a new department of higher education in December 2025 only due to mounting operational difficulties, but both education departments remained under one minister.

According to NDA insiders, the move has been smooth despite some “pulls” from both sides. It aims to spruce up the public health system in the state and usher in needed reforms in the education sector in sync with the New Education Policy (NEP).

A senior JD(U) leader said the party wanted a department that could ensure greater visibility for former CM Nitish Kumar’s son, Nishant, and the swap was planned accordingly. Nishant, as he claimed during his first interviews on Friday, plans to establish himself through “good governance,” which has been a hallmark of his father.

However, heading a big department like health will also be challenging for Nishant. Despite infrastructural growth in terms of hospital buildings and 27 medical colleges in the state (with plans to increase this to over 40), the rate of filling vacancies for doctors and specialists has proven difficult, impacting rural healthcare access. A large number of vacancies in the health sector are pending. Another big challenge for him will be enforcing the ban on private practice by government doctors, as announced by his father.

New faces, new hope

Political calculations aside, the new ministries and their new faces are also seen as a harbinger of hope, as a plethora of issues plague both the health and education sectors and need sorting for the vision of “developed Bihar” to be fulfilled.

The BJP will now have two ministers to fix and run education smoothly. Of the two, Sanjay Singh Tiger made his cabinet debut in November 2025 and will now hold charge of the higher education department, while first-timer Mithilesh Tiwari heads the education department.

Tiwari, who took charge on Friday, was tested by a student protest over the timing of the TRE-4 examination in Patna. The protest was quelled by a lathicharge, and several protesters were injured. Similarly, a school in Saharsa saw over 300 students get infected after consuming a mid-day meal that allegedly contained a dead snake. The incident from Saharsa hogged a lot of limelight. Tiwari said he will review the issues in his department and prioritise them for action.

According to observers, education has actually been a lingering issue for the NDA government. “One department that has remained the Achilles’ heel for the NDA government is education, particularly higher education. This eventually led to the creation of a new department of higher education with a new face to provide a fresh outlook, as controversies abound there due to high stakes involved, growing politicisation of campuses, slipping trust, and a question mark over key appointments. Tiger is the first higher education minister in Bihar and he will have his job cut out from day one to make an impact,” said Delhi University professor Rajesh Jha.

The appointment of assistant professors has also landed in serious controversy and is yet to be completed even after five years due to hundreds of appointments based on alleged fake documents, court cases, and a blame game between the Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) and the state universities. Even on April 30, the Chancellor asked BSUSC to probe growing complaints of irregularities and submit its report.

Systemic issues

Besides, Bihar is far behind on reforms and could fall by the wayside due to the UGC’s categorisation of universities since 2018 based on specific yardsticks and tougher guidelines. The high-stakes appointment of vice-chancellors is due in four state universities and more are set to fall vacant in the coming months, while the appointment of pro-VCs has remained stuck for years.

Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Bihar (FUTAB) working president KB Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, MLC, said they hoped the new minister, known for his integrity, would take an objective view of the prevailing situation and then move forward. “Government employees-both working and retired—have the option of seeking advance payment in case of delay, but there is no such facility for universities, while pensioners are the worst hit,” they said.

Former head of economics at the Patna University, Prof NK Choudhary, said that one hopes the new education minister would have a fresh approach to move away from the old system, which kept crucial appointments captive for too long and procrastinated on problem solving, in coordination with the Chancellor.

“A breath of fresh air is the need of the hour for higher education, which is marred by systemic problems, erratic classes, abridged academic sessions to bring late sessions on track, missing campus ambiance, falling enrolment due to unbridled student migration and eroding trust leading to large-scale migration of good students,” he added.

Tiger takes over the reins at a time when there is a move for fresh appointments in colleges and universities without overcoming the glitches of the ongoing process and making a needs assessment, as the issue of aided institutions has also remained unresolved.

As one of the biggest departments, accounting for over 20% of the budget, education was always at the top of the priority list for the Nitish government. It also achieved a fair amount of success initially by arresting dropout rates, ensuring gender parity and incentivizing education, but quality always remained a big concern despite the large-scale appointment of school teachers in the last couple of years, which also led to controversies over the use of forged documents and the axing of many teachers.

The education department is big, with several directorates - Primary, Secondary, Mass Education - and specialised bodies like Bihar Education Project Council, Bihar State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation (BSEIDC), State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Bihar School Examination Board, functioning under it, while for higher education there is a separate department now.

“Ultimately, everything boils down to quality. The reality is before everyone. The student credit card scheme has fumbled with recent blacklisting of institutions, labs hardly work in most of the institutions and despite growing supervision mechanism for teachers and plenty of incentives the desired trust in the school system is yet to be restored to make it a sought after destination for students and parents, as chief minister Samrat Choudhary said at the very outset,” said a retired headmaster.