JD(U) supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar with BJP leaders Samrat Choudhary and others.
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: In a major shift in the balance of power, senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has been appointed as the new Home Minister of Bihar.
This is for the first time in the last two decades that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has given up the Home portfolio, a ministry he always kept with himself, which, in turn, helped him establish the rule of law in the State.
Samrat, who has been elected as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party (BJPLP) was Finance Minister in the previous regime, besides being the Deputy CM.
The other Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Vijay Sinha has been allotted the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, besides Mines and Geology, while the Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal will be the new Industry Ministry. In the previous government, Nitish Mishra, son of former CM Dr Jagannath Mishra, was the Industry Minister.
Another BJP leader Mangal Pandey will continue as Health Minister of Bihar. Nitin Nabin too will continue to hold his old portfolio Road Construction, while Ram Kripal Yadav, inducted as a minister for the first time, will look after the Agriculture Department.
The youngest minister in the Nitish Cabinet, Shreyasi Singh, has been made Minister for Information Technology and Sports.
Deepak Prakash, Upendra Kushwaha’s son and the last minute surprise induction, will be the Panchayati Raj minister.
Altogether 26 ministers, besides Nitish, were sworn in on Thursday. Out of 26, 14 were from the BJP, eight from the JD (U), two from the LJP (R) and one each from the HAM and RLM.
Strangely, in a departure from the established norms, the portfolios were distributed for 18 ministers while the eight JD (U) ministers have been asked to wait till their portfolios are announced after sometime.