Bihar Cabinet Expansion: After the collapse of the alliance with the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) earlier this month, the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and ally party RJD on Tuesday expanded the cabinet in Bihar, with RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav and 30 other MLAs taking oath as ministers, at Raj Bhawan in Patna.
Out of the total 31 cabinet ministers, as many as 16 are from key ally RJD, taking care to give due representation to all sections of society, including minorities. Eleven members of the council of ministers are from the JD(U), two are from the Congress, one is from the HAM, and one member is independent, PTI reported.
The induction ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan, where Governor Phagu Chauhan swore in the inductees in groups of five and six.
Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bijendra Yadav (both JDU), Tej Pratap Yadav, Alok Mehta (both RJD) and Afaque Alam (Congress) take oath in the first batch of Bihar cabinet expansion.
In the second batch, Shravan Kumar, Ashok Choudhary, Leshi Singh (all JDU), Surendra Prasad Yadav and Ramanand Yadav (both RJD) took oath as cabinet ministers.
Sanjay Jha, Madan Sahni (both JDU), Kumar Sarvajeet, Lalit Yadav (both RJD) and Santosh Kumar Suman (HAM) took oath in the third batch of Bihar cabinet expansion.
In the fourth batch of Bihar cabinet expansion, Sheela Kumari, Sunil Kumar (both JDU), Samir Kumar Mahaseth, Chandrashekhar (both RJD), and Sumit Kumar Singh (Independent) took oath as ministers.
Mohd Zama Khan, Jayant Raj (both JDU), Jitendra Kumar Rai, Anita Devi and Sudhakar Singh (all RJD) took oath in the fifth batch of Bihar cabinet expansion.
The newly established "Mahagathbandhan" cabinet has been expanded about a week after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke away from the BJP-led alliance and created a new administration with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.
After the oath-taking ceremony, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stated: "The portfolios will be allocated shortly. I will hold a meeting of the entire cabinet today once again."
The members of the Mahagathbandhan met several times prior to the expansion of the cabinet. There can only be 36 ministers in the Bihar government.
On August 24, a floor test will be held to determine whether Nitish Kumar's new Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar has a majority in the state assembly.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's refusal to step down first raised doubts about the session, leading the ruling coalition to submit a no-confidence motion against Sinha.
In the Bihar Assembly, the BJP holds 77 seats, followed by the JDU with 45, Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM(S) with 4, the RJD with 79, the Congress with 19, the CPI(M-L) with 12, the CPI with 4, the AIMIM with 1, and the Independent with 1.
The JDU-RJD-HAM-Congress-CPI(M-L)-CPI grand alliance has a total of 163 members. The lone Independent MLA has also pledged his support for Nitish Kumar, bringing the party's effective strength to 164.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister for the seventh time on Wednesday, after resigning the day before and leaving the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Tejashwi Yadav, head of the RJD, was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.
A cabinet meeting attended by Kumar and Yadav on Wednesday decided to hold the floor test on August 24 and submit a reasonable proposal for summoning the state legislature.
The Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance, has the backing of 164 assembly members.
Earlier, Nitish Kumar severed relations with the BJP for the second time in eight years, joining forces with the RJD and other Mahagathbandhan parties, including the Congress and the Left. The Grand Alliance is also supported by HAM, which has four Assembly members.