Bihar Cabinet Expansion Takes Places Months Ahead Of Polls

By fnf correspondent | PUBLISHED: 26, Feb 2025, 20:05 pm IST | UPDATED: 26, Feb 2025, 20:05 pm IST

New Delhi: With Bihar elections due in November this year, the National Democratic Alliance government led by Nitish Kumar today expanded its cabinet, inducting seven more ministers from the BJP. All the ministers hail from different castes and thus are clearly an attempt by the ruling coalition to balance caste equations ahead of the polls.

The new ministers are Jivesh Mishra, a Bhumihar face and MLA from the Jale seat, Bihar Sharif MLA Sunil Kumar - a Koiri face, Krishna Kumar Mantoo, a Kurmi leader and MLA from the Amnaur Seat, Arariya MLA Vijay Mandal hailing from the Kewat caste, Sahebganj MLA Raju Singh - a Rajput leader, Darbhanga MLA Sanjay Sarawagi - Marwari leader, and Riga MLA Moti Lal Prasad -a Vaishya face.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet to conform with his party's policy of 'one person, one post'. Jaiswal, who held the crucial Revenue and Land Reform portfolio, was inducted into the cabinet in January last year after the BJP returned to power in the state with CM Nitish Kumar joining the NDA. In July, he replaced Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary as the state BJP president.

In the 2020 assembly polls, the BJP had bagged 74 seats, RJD 75, JDU 43, and Congress 19. The NDA include BJP, JDU, HAM, LJP-RV while the Mahagathbandhan consists of Congress, RJD, and Left parties.