Bihar Cabinet expansion: Nitish Kumar keeps Home portfolio; Tejashwi Yadav gets Health

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has kept the crucial Home Department portfolio with himself and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav has taken charge of the Health Departments portfolio in the first Cabinet expansion of the newly formed Mahagathbandhan government in BiharJDU leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary got the Finance Department and RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav was given charge of Minister of Environment Forest and Climate ChangeOf the 31 ministers sworn into the Bihar cabinet 16 were from Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD 11 were from Nitishs Janta DalUnited JDU two were from Congress and one was from Hindustani Awam Morch HAM and one was an Independent lawmakerShortly after the cabinet ministers were sworn in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told reporters that the portfolios will be allocated soon to each minister and will hold a meeting in this regardThe new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan at Raj Bhavan hereTwo legislators from the Congress one from Jitin Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha and the lone Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh also took oath as cabinet ministersFrom RJD Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs brother Tej Pratap Yadav Samir Kumar Mahaseth Chandrashekhar Kumar Sarvajeet Lalit Yadav Surendra Prasad Yadav Ramanand Yadav Jitendra Kumar Rai Anita Devi and Sudhakar Singh and Alok Mehta took oathCongress legislators Afaque Alam and Murari Lal Gautam were inducted into the cabinet as ministers while Hindustani Awam Morchas Santosh Suman was also sworn inThe Bihar cabinet can have up to 36 ministers including the Chief Minister Some ministerial berths will be kept vacant for future cabinet expansion sources saidNitish Kumar had broken away from the BJP and formed a government with the RJD and other parties earlier this month The Chief Minister and his deputy RJDs Tejashwi Yadav took oath on August 10The Bihar Grand Alliance has a combined strength of 163 Its effective strength climbed to 164 after Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh extended its support to Nitish Kumar The new government is likely to prove majority in the Bihar assembly on August 24The BJPs central leadership will hold a meeting with the partys Bihar unit leaders here on Tuesday days after the JDU parted ways with it and formed a new government in the stateThey are likely to deliberate upon the BJPs future course of action and the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls sources said adding organisational changes may also come up for discussion The meeting will be chaired by BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and the general secretary organisation BL Santhosh will also be presentThe 2020 Assembly polls in Bihar was a tightly contested one with the National Democratic Alliance winning 125 seats with BJP winning 74 of these the Janata Dal United of Nitish Kumar 43 the Vikassheel Insaan Party 4 and Hindustan Awaam Party Secular 4 This put the NDA just above the requisite 122majority mark needed to form the governmentThe RJD and its allies on the other hand had won 110 seats The RJD finished as the singlelargest party with 75 seats while Congress won a mere 19 seats Of the 29 seats the Left parties had contested they won in 16 with the CPI MLLiberation winning 12 of them Asaduddin Owaisis AIMIM had won five seats in the Seemanchal region of the state Four of its MLAs have switched to the RJDThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever