Nitish retains home, BJP gets finance in portfolio allocation
Nearly a week after the new Bihar government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar was sworn in, portfolios were allocated in the state cabinet on Saturday with the Janata Dal (United) president retaining the crucial home portfolio but giving away the finance department to ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The portfolio allocation has largely followed the formula from 2020, when the JD(U)-BJP alliance formed the government in Bihar after winning the assembly polls. In August 2022, Kumar severed ties with the BJP and formed the Mahagathbandhan government in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Left parties. He made another volte face last week after he dumped the RJD and Congress and joined hands with the BJP.
The Bihar cabinet, which was sworn in on January 28, currently has only nine ministers, including the CM and his two deputies — BJP’S Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. The cabinet can have a maximum of 36 ministers, including the CM.
According to an official notification, besides home, which helps Kumar maintain control over the state police, the JD(U) president has also retained key departments like cabinet secretariat, election, vigilance, general administration and “all other portfolios not allocated to anyone else”. All these departments have remained with Kumar since 2005 despite change in alliance partners.
Bihar BJP chief Samrat Choudhary, who took oath as the deputy chief minister last week, has been given charge of finance, health, commercial tax, urban development and housing, sports, panchayati raj, animal husbandry and fisheries and law portfolios.
Both finance and health departments have been with the BJP whenever it formed the government in state in alliance with Kumar’s party. In the grand alliance government, the two departments were held by the JD(U).
BJP leader and another deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha has been given agriculture, road construction, revenue and land reforms, sugarcane, mining and geology, labour resources, art, culture and youth affairs, minor water resources and public health and engineering department, the notification said.
Prem Kumar, who is only the third BJP minister in the cabinet, has been given cooperatives, other backward classes (OBC) and extremely backward classes (EBC) welfare, disaster management, tourism and environment, forests and climate change.
Senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary has returned to education department, which the RJD helmed in the grand alliance. Besides, he retained parliamentary affairs and also got water resources, transport, building construction, and information and public relations department.
JD(U)’S Bijendra Prasad Yadav retained the power department besides getting excise and prohibition, planning and development, rural works and minority welfare. His party colleague Shravan Kumar has retained rural welfare besides getting social welfare and food and consumer affairs.
Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Santosh Kumar Suman has been given information technology and the SC/ST welfare departments. Independent legislator Sumit Kumar Singh, who has remained loyal to the JD(U) supremo during his multiple switchovers in the last four years, has retained science, technology and technical education.
“After the [cabinet] expansion, the portfolios will be redistributed, but the contours of which one will remain with the BJP and those with JD(U) have been drawn...,” a senior JD(U) leader said.
A senior BJP leader said the two deputy CMS will hold talks with the BJP top brass in Delhi in a day or two on the cabinet expansion.