Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to expand his Cabinet soon after the ongoing Assembly session is over on November 27.
According to sources in the ruling NDA camp, seven ministers from the JD(U) while 10 from the BJP may take oath in the first Cabinet expansion by November 30.
Altogether, 14 ministers, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the two Deputy Chief Ministers (from the BJP), were administered oath on November 16.
Of these 14 ministers, five were from the JD(U), seven from the BJP and one each from the new NDA allies—HAM and VIP.
“The BJP’s claim to more ministers is obvious as it has 74 MLAs in the House, while the JD(U) has merely 43 MLAs in the 243-member Assembly,” said the NDA source, adding that the HAM and the VIP will not be included in the Cabinet expansion as both the parties, which won four seats each in the just-concluded Assembly election, have one minister each in the Nitish Cabinet.
According to constitutional provisions, Nitish can have 36 members in his Cabinet. In the previous Cabinet, he had 33. Presently, he can accommodate 22 more colleagues, but is likely to induct only 17 members as of now.
“All those, who are likely to be included in the Cabinet expansion, will have a clean record,” said the source adding that the appointment and subsequent resignation of Education Minister Mewalal Choudhary, who was facing corruption charges, was a huge embarrassment for Nitish Kumar last week.
Meanwhile, the first Assembly session of the new House began here on Monday with the newly elected MLAs taking the oath. Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmad Khan surprised everyone by taking oath in Sanskrit, saying “I preferred Sanskrit as it’s the mother of all languages.”