Patna : Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday relinquished control of the crucial home portfolio for the first time in 20 years as his deputy and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Samrat Choudhary was assigned the ministry that oversees law and order, a key issue that propelled the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to victory in the recent state polls.
The announcement of portfolios came a day after Kumar, his two deputies Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were sworn in. Twenty-four other ministers — eight from the Janata Dal (United), 12 from the BJP, two from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and one each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha — also took oath in batches of six.
Kumar –– who earlier held charge of home, general administration, cabinet secretariat, and election in addition to being CM –– has retained all but the home portfolio. This included the general administration department, which oversees transfer and posting of IAS officers, including in the home department.
Choudhary emerged as the second-most influential after Kumar with the home berth. Last time, he handled finance and commercial taxes and the panchayati raj departments.
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Deputy CM Sinha was given revenue and land reforms along with mines and geology. Last time, he handled agriculture and the mines and geology departments.
Among the JD(U), Bijendra Prasad Yadav retained energy, planning & development, excise & prohibition, as well as finance and commercial taxes, previously held by Samrat Choudhary.
{{/usCountry}}Among the JD(U), Bijendra Prasad Yadav retained energy, planning & development, excise & prohibition, as well as finance and commercial taxes, previously held by Samrat Choudhary.
{{/usCountry}}Vijay Kumar Chaudhary was allocated water resources, parliamentary affairs, information and public relations, and building construction departments. Last time, he handled water resources and parliamentary affairs departments.
Shrawon Kumar retained rural development and got additional charge of transport. Ashok Chaudhary retained rural works and Leshi Singh, one of the three women ministers, was given food and consumer protection. Madan Sahni, meanwhile, retained the social welfare portfolio.
Mohd Zama Khan, the only Muslim face in the cabinet, was allocated the minority welfare department.
Among the BJP lawmakers, Mangal Pandey retained the health portfolio and got additional charge of law & justice. State BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal was given industries. He handled the revenue and land reforms department before the cabinet reshuffle in the previous government in February this year.
Nitin Nabin retained road construction and gained urban development, while Ram Kripal Yadav was given agriculture.
Arun Shankar Prasad was allocated tourism, art, culture and youth affairs, Surendra Mehta animal husbandry and fisheries, and Narayan Prasad (BJP) disaster management. Sanjay Singh Tiger got labour resources, Rama Nishad backward and extremely backward classes welfare, Lakhendra Kumar Raushan scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare, Shreyasi Singh sports and information technology, and Pramod Kumar forest environment and cooperative departments.
Santosh Kumar Suman of the HAM(S) was assigned minor irrigation. Deepak Prakash of the RLM was given panchayati raj department. JD(U)’s Sunil Kumar retained education and added science and technology portfolios.
Sanjay Kumar of the LJP(RV) got sugarcane industries and party colleague Sanjay Kumar Singh got public health engineering department (PHED).
BJP’s Manish Pandey said all ministers are “committed to the objective of chief minister Nitish Kumar”. Meanwhile, JD(U)’s Arvind Nishad said, “All major decisions are taken at the level of CM, and hence it is immaterial who is holding which department if all ministers are working as a team.”
The Opposition criticised the portfolio allocation. “The BJP has succeeded in its plan. We have been saying that Nitish Kumar would only be the face,” said RJD spokesperson Ejaj Ahmed.