Is Bihar Cabinet Expansion Nitish Kumar's Great Balancing Act Ahead Of Assembly Elections?
Six of the seven BJP MLAs appointed as ministers are from North Bihar and one MLA, Sunil Kumar, is from South Bihar.
Bihar Cabinet Expansion News: The cabinet expansion and Nitish Kumar's 'one ministry per minister' policy is a key development for Bihar in an election year. Seven BJP MLAs — Sanjay Sarawagi, Sunil Kumar, Jivesh Kumar, Raju Singh, Moti Lal Prasad, Vijay Kumar Mandal and Krishna Kumar Manttu — took the oath of office as ministers on Wednesday .
With the appointment of seven ministers, the number of ministers in the Nitish cabinet has now reached 36. There are now 21 BJP ministers in the cabinet, while 13 from the JDU, including Nitish. Apart from them, there is one minister from Jitan Ram Manjhi's party 'Ham' and one independent — Sumit Singh.
Is JD-U The Younger Brother In NDA?
This appears to be Nitish Kumar's great balancing act ahead of the elections, with the Chief Minister's JDU assuming the role of the younger brother in the NDA in Bihar, while handing over the steering to the BJP.
The Opposition in Bihar has taken the opportunity to target the NDA by linking it to the elections. But is it a pre-election stunt? Here are the stats:
Out of the seven BJP MLAs who have been elevated to minister posts, six are from North Bihar. The lone MLA from South Bihar is Sunil Kumar, the Bihar Sharif representative. The latest Cabinet expansion points to a strategy that the BJP doesn't want to leave any stone unturned to maintain its dominance in North Bihar.
But Why The Focus On North Bihar?
The main reason for the BJP's North Bihar push is the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. Except for a few seats in the Seemanchal region of North Bihar, the NDA had won almost all the seats. But it had to face significant losses in South Bihar.
By making Sikti (Araria) MLA Vijay Mandal, a minister, the BJP is sending out a strong message in Seemanchal. There is a large Muslim population in Darbhanga and Madhubani, so two MLAs from Darbhanga district, Sanjay Sarawagi and Jivesh Kumar, have been handed portfolios in the Bihar Cabinet.
The expansion has been delicately balanced to even satisfy caste equations in Bihar. Out of the seven MLAs who have been made ministers, two, Jivesh Kumar and Raju Singh, belong to upper castes. Since the BJP considers the upper castes as its core voter base, its move is likely to have been keeping its eyes on the target vote bank.
It is believed that the Vaishya community is also a big BJP backer. Keeping this in mind, Sanjay Sarawagi and Moti Lal Prasad, who belong to the Vaishya community, have been made ministers.
Apart from Sitamarhi, Shivhar and Motihari in North Bihar, there are many districts which are Vaishya dominated. The Vaishya caste is an extremely backward class. With nearly 36% of the population counted among the extremely backward classes, five EBC faces have been kept in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.
The NDA also kept the Kurmis, the caste of CM Nitish Kumar, in mind while expanding the Cabinet. Krishna Kumar Mantu from the Kurmi caste and Sunil Kumar, who belongs to the Kushwaha community, were elevated to ministerial posts for this reason.
If the anger of the upper castes and the Kushwahas, Kurmis, and Koiris is eliminated in South Bihar, NDA can win most of the seats.
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