Bihar: Nitish Kumar expands Cabinet — all 7 new faces BJP, several turncoats

Ed: Republished with additional details

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on 26 February, Wednesday expanded his cabinet, with the induction of seven new faces, all from the alliance partner BJP — with less than a year left of his term.

Among them, three are from the OBC (other backward classes), two from the EBC (extremely backward classes) and two are savarnas (upper castes):

1. Raju Singh (Sahebganj): Rajput

2. Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga): Marwari

3. Jivesh Mishra (Jale): Bhumihar

4. Vijay Mandal (Araria): Kewat

5. Krishna Kumar Mantu (Amanour): Kurmi

6. Sunil Kumar (Biharsharif): Koeri

7. Motilal Prasad (Riga): Teli

Geographically, four are from Mithila region — bringing the total of ministers from Mithila to 6 out of a total cabinet strength of now 36 MLAs — the maximum permissible in the state with a 243-strong assembly.

At a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan in Patna, governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office to the new inductees.

Earlier in the day, Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal resigned from the Cabinet to conform with his party's policy of 'one person, one post'.

Of the new ministers, Jibesh Kumar was a member of the state cabinet till August 2022, when the chief minister abruptly quit the NDA, accusing the BJP of trying to "break" his JD(U).

Jibesh Kumar, who returns to the state cabinet with just two days left for the commencement of the budget session, told reporters: "I am ready to discharge the responsibility to the best of my ability".

Other inductees are Sanjay Saraogi, a fifth-term MLA from Darbhanga, and Sunil Kumar, who has represented Bihar Sharif — in the CM's pocket borough Nalanda — thrice on a JD(U) ticket before crossing over to the BJP in 2015.

Another former JD(U) face is Raju Kumar Singh, the MLA from Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur, who won the seat in 2020 on a ticket from the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP), floated by former Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni.

The VIP had won altogether three seats, but all its MLAs joined the BJP in 2023 after Sahni burnt his bridges with the saffron party, losing his cabinet berth in the bargain.

Singh came out with a guarded response when he was asked whether the ministerial berth could be seen as a "reward" for switching loyalty towards the BJP.

He said, "It is the party's prerogative to decide what responsibility should be given to whom. I shall try to live up to the expectations of the party as well as the people of Bihar".

Another notable face is Krishna Kumar Mantu, the MLA from Amnour in Saran district, who was recently in the news for organising a ‘Kurmi Chetna Rally’ in Patna, with a view to reaching out to the powerful OBC community to which the JD(U) supremo belongs.

The remaining inductees are Vijay Kumar Mandal, who represents Sikti, in Araria district, and Moti Lal Prasad, the MLA from Riga in Sitamarhi.

A careful calculation of the BJP's support base seems to have been at work in the cabinet expansion that took place a day after the party's national president chaired a meeting of its core group here.

Two of the new ministers, Jibesh Kumar (Bhumihar) and Raju Kumar Singh (Rajput), belong to the upper castes, which make up only a little over 10 per cent of Bihar’s population in Bihar — but have been the BJP's most loyal voters for decades.

With the exception of Sunil Kumar, all hail from the region north of the Ganges, where the NDA has been performing better than the rival RJD, Congress and Left combine, who are also INDIA bloc allies at the national level.