Nitish Kumar expands Bihar cabinet, inducts BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday expanded his cabinet by inducting 17 new ministers into his government. BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain was among those who were sworn- in today’s cabinet expansion.

Former Union Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who got elected to the Bihar Legislative Council last month, was the first to be administered the oath of office by Governor Phagu Chauhan at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan for the much-awaited cabinet expansion.

The 17 ministers include 10 from the Bharatiya Janata Party, six from the Janata Dal-United (JDU) and one Independent who has given support to the JDU.

The 10 newly inducted ministers from the BJP include MLC Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput`s brother Neeraj Kumar 'Babloo', Nitin Naveen, Samrat Chaudhary, Subhash Singh, Janak Ram, Alok Ranjan Jha, Narayan Prasad, Pramod Kumar and Sunil Kumar. From the JDU side, there was Leshi Singh, Sanjay Jha, Madan Sahni, Shrawan Kumar, Jayant Raj and Jama Khan, who recently joined the JDU quitting the BSP.

Independent candidate Sumit Singh, who has supported the JDU, has also been given a ministerial post. Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) didn`t find any place in the cabinet expansion.

This was Hussain’s first attempt in electoral politics after he unsuccessfully contested the Bhagalpur seat in the 2014 general elections. After being denied a ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Hussain was serving as one of the BJP’s national spokespersons. He was a Union minister in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

On November 16, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth straight term at a ceremony which was attended by Union Home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda.

Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) (JD-U)] formed the government under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

BJP leaders Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were also sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar, replacing Sushil Kumar Modi who had been Nitish Kumar`s deputy for 15 years.

Governor Phagu Chauhan had administered the oath of office to Kumar, along with a 14-member council of ministers. The NDA has secured a 125-seat majority in the 243-seat strong Bihar Legislative Assembly of which BJP won on 74 seats, JD(U) on 43 while eight seats were won by two other NDA constituents. 

The RJD, on the other hand, emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats while the Congress only won 19 seats.