NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has allocated portfolios to his expanded coalition cabinet, a day after being sworn in for a record tenth term.The BJP, now the single largest party with 89 seats, secured the largest share of ministries in the new Bihar cabinet. Samrat Chaudhary has taken charge of the home department, a portfolio Chief Minister Nitish Kumar himself had held for many years. Vijay Kumar Sinha will oversee land and revenue as well as mines and geology. Mangal Pandey has been assigned health and law, while Dilip Jaiswal returns to head the industries department. Nitin Naveen will handle road construction along with urban development and housing.Other major portfolios with the BJP include:Health and law — Mangal PandeyRoad construction; urban development and housing — Nitin NaveenAgriculture – Ramkripal YadavTourism; art, culture and youth — Arun Shankar PrasadInformation and public relations; sports – Shreyasi SinghIndustries – Dilip JaiswalLabor resources – Sanjay TigerAnimal and fisheries resources — Surendra MehtaDisaster management – Narayan PrasadSC/ST welfare — Lakhendra PaswanBackward and extremely backward class welfare — Rama NipatCooperation; environment, forest and climate change — Pramod Chandra Banshi
The reshuffle follows a grand swearing-in ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior NDA leaders and chief ministers of several NDA-ruled states. Nitish Kumar, at 74, returned to office with 26 ministers—eight from JD(U), two from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and one each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).Smaller allies have also been accommodated. LJP(R) has secured the Sugarcane Industry and Public Health Engineering departments, HAM has been allotted Minor Water Resources, and RLM has taken charge of Panchayati Raj.Samrat Chaudhary had won the Tarapur seat with 1,22,480 votes, ahead of RJD’s Arun Shah, who received 76,637. Meanwhile, in Lakhisarai, BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha emerged victorious with 1,22,408 votes, defeating Congress candidate Amaresh Kumar.
