Last Updated: March 15, 2024, 16:58 IST
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s council of ministers to be expanded on Friday. (Image: PTI)
Nine Janata Dal-United (JDU) MLAs and 12 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs will be inducted into the new cabinet
Weeks after the dissolution of the alliance with the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the expansion of Nitish Kumar-led new cabinet will take place on Friday. The new ministers are expected to take the oath of office at 6:30 pm today.
Reportedly, Nine Janata Dal-United (JDU) MLAs and 12 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs will be inducted into the new cabinet.
The development comes after weeks of speculation following a meeting between the BJP and JDU leaders. Deputy Chief Ministers Renu Devi and Vijay Sinha attended this meeting along with JDU leaders Lalit Singh, Sanjay Jha, Bijendra Yadav, and Vijay Chaudhary were present at the meeting.
Watch Bihar Cabinet’s Swearing-in Here
JDU MLAs To Take The Oath Today:
- Madan Sahni
- Ashok Choudhary
- Leshi Singh
- Jama Khan
- Sunil Kumar
- Jayant Raj
- Maheshwar Hazari
- Sheila Mandal
- Ratnesh Sada
12 BJP MLAs To Be Inducted in The Bihar Cabinet
- Mangal Pandey
- Aruna Devi
- Neeraj Babloo
- Neetish Mishra
- Nitin Navin
- Krishnanandan Paswan
- Santosh Singh
- Surendra Mehta
- Hari Sahni
- Janak Ram
- Kedar Gupta
- Dilip Jaiswal
At present, the Council of Ministers, which can have more than 30 members, has a total strength of nine. Three are from BJP, including Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, while four, including the CM, belong to JD(U). Besides, Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh and Santosh Suman of Hindustani Awam Morcha are ministers.
In his fifth political flip-flop in the last decade, JDU Chief Nitish Kumar ditched the alliance with the RJD & Congress and took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar on January 28 with the support of the BJP.
The move also marked his party’s exit from the grand INDIA bloc, a crucial move ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was declared elected unopposed to the state legislative council for a fourth consecutive term.
Besides Kumar, those who got elected include former chief minister Rabri Devi (RJD), who is the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, and cabinet minister Santosh Suman.
