Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has ceded the home portfolio to BJP for the first time in his two decades at the helm and his party JDU has, in lieu, got control of finance, which was kept by BJP. Though it may appear like a regular ministry swap which happens between allies, the significance of deputy CM Samrat Choudhary being given charge of home was lost on few as the department is considered politically crucial due to its control of police, intelligence and general law & order, a reason why CMs in most states keep the portfolio to themselves. This is also a big boost for Choudhary and puts him in a higher weight category vis-a-vis his party colleague and the other deputy CM, Vijay Sinha, who has got revenue & land reforms and mines & geology departments, a notification said.
Sources said that the new arrangement would also see political inputs accommodated into the functioning of the crucial department, which had recently been perceived to be run by bureaucrats. JDU’s Bijendra Prasad Yadav has been vested with finance and commercial tax department, held by Choudhary in the last govt. The rising Kushwaha figure of BJP is now in charge of the state’s law & order, and has no other department. tnnAfter GST rollout, state finance portfolio lost some sheen As Nitish distributed portfolios among his 26 ministers – 14 from BJP, eight from JDU, two from LJP(RV) and one each from HAM(S) and RLM, the two main parties seemed to be keeping most of the key departments they earlier had, save for the exchange of home and finance.The finance ministry in states has lost some of its sheen as levers of revenue generation are limited for them after GST rollout, more so in Bihar where liquor is not a source of filling coffers due to prohibition since 2016.The decision of Nitish, whose ‘sushasan babu’ image owed much to his handling of law and order as he ensured minimal political interference in policing, to part with the ministry hints at the growing recognition in JDU circles about the need to relieve him of a part of his responsibilities as well as BJP’s growing heft in the alliance after the party’s national brass led by PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah played a central role in shepherding the NDA’s campaign that decimated the opposition.CMs in most states, including Yogi Adityanath in UP, MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu, Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra and N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, are in charge of home, or law & order, as it is referred in some places. In Congress-governed Karnataka, the home ministry has been given to G Parameshwara but CM Siddaramaiah has kept ‘intelligence’ with himself.There have been, however, examples of allies getting the home department. In the previous Mahayuti govt headed by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, his deputy and BJP’s Fadnavis was in charge of the portfolio. In the Maha Vikas Aghadi govt that preceded Shinde’s, NCP’s Anil Deshmukh was the home minister in the dispensation headed by Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray. Both NCP and Shiv Sena had split and the new factions, which later got the official status, became partners in subsequent Mahayuti govt.Among current state govts, deputy CM Vijay Sharma holds the home ministry in BJP-governed Chhattisgarh.Nitish has kept the portfolios of the general administration department, cabinet secretariat and vigilance with himself. Vijay Chowdhary, a close aide of Nitish, will helm building construction, water resources and parliamentary affairs. The party has not named its choices for six other departments that have come its way, with sources saying that the picks would be finalized later.BJP has continued to keep health, law, industries, road construction, urban development and housing, and agriculture in its First quota-time minister BJP’s Shreyasi Singh, a former international shooter, has been given sports, and information and technology. Deepak Prakash of RLM and HAM(S)’s Santosh Suman have been given the portfolios of panchayati raj department and minor water resources department, respectively.LJP (RV) MLAs Sanjay Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Singh are in charge of sugarcane and public health engineering department, respectively.
