Bihar Cabinet Expansion Today, RJD Expected To Get Most Ministerial Berths
The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Patna's Raj Bhavan.
The Bihar Cabinet will be expanded on Tuesday, and the coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal is expected to gain a considerable number of seats. The Janata Dal (United) and Congress are also likely to gain fair amount of seats, news agency ANI reported.
The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Patna's Raj Bhavan.
The newly established "Mahagathbandhan" cabinet will be enlarged 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.
Before the cabinet enlargement, the Mahagathbandhan partners had a series of talks. The Bihar government can only have 36 ministers.
Meanwhile, Bihar's new Mahagathbandhan administration, led by Nitish Kumar, will have a floor test on August 24 to confirm its majority in the state legislature.
The session was first called into question when Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha refused to resign, prompting the ruling coalition to file a no-confidence resolution against Sinha.
The BJP has 77 seats in the Bihar Assembly, the JDU has 45, Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM(S) has 4, the RJD has 79, the Congress has 19, the CPI(M-L) has 12, the CPI has 4, and the AIMIM and Independent have one seat apiece.
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. According to sources, the cabinet will be expanded on August 16, and the RJD would have more ministers than the Janata Dal-United.
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.
(With Inputs From ANI)
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