A day after the expansion of his cabinet, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday allocated portfolios to the ministers of the National Democratic Alliance government. While Mr. Kumar retained important portfolios such as Home, General Administration, Cabinet Secretariat, Election, and Vigilance.
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A total of 45 departments have been distributed among 30 cabinet Ministers. As Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has more MLAs in comparison to Janata Dal (United), the distribution of departments has been done accordingly.
BJP has stake in 22 departments whereas JD(U) has 19 departments. Three departments have been given to Santosh Kumar Suman, son of former Chief Minister of Jitan Ram Manjhi who heads Hindusanti Awam Morcha (Secular). Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh has been given one department in the form of Science, Technology and Technical Educational.
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Five departments have been distributed among the two Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. Mr. Choudhary has been allotted the Finance and Commercial Taxes department whereas Mr. Sinha is given the responsibility of Road Construction, Mines and Geology along with the Art, Culture and Youth Affairs department.
Senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary has been made Minister of Water Resources and Parliamentary Affairs department. Another senior leader, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, has been allotted the Energy department as well as the Planning and Development department.
The most important part is the allocation of the Education department which has always remained in the news for tussle with Raj Bhavan. Former IPS officer Sunil Kumar has been made Education Minister. During the grand alliance government, the Education department was headed by Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Chandra Shekhar whose statement on Ramcharitmanas and Manusmriti had drawn the ire of BJP leaders.
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Prem Kumar has been given the Cooperative department as well Environment, Forest and Climate Change department. Shravan Kumar has been made Rural Development department minister. Renu Devi who was earlier Deputy Chief Minister has been given the responsibility of Animal and Fish Resources department.
Mangal Pandey will be heading the Health department as well as the Agriculture department. Both portfolios were earlier occupied by RJD lawmakers.
Niraj Kumar Singh has been given Public, Health, and Engineering Departments whereas Ashok Choudhary, a close associate of the Chief Minister, has been made Rural Works Minister.
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Two women MLAs of JD(U), Lesi Singh and Sheela Mandal, have been allotted the Food and Consumer Protection department and the Transport Ministry respectively.
Madan Shani has been made Social Welfare department Minister whereas Nitish Mishra has been given Industries and Tourism department. Maheshwar Hazari, who was earlier Deputy Speaker of the Bihar Assembly has been given the Information and Public Relation department. Similarly, Nitin Nabin has been allotted the Urban Development and Housing department as well as the Law Ministry.
Janak Ram of BJP has been made the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Welfare Minister whereas Jayant Raj of JD-(U) has been given Building Construction department. Another JD-(U) MLA Jama Khan has been given the Minority Welfare department which he was serving earlier. Ratnesh Sada has been given Prohibition, Excise and Registration department.
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Mr. Suman has been given Information Technology, Minor Water Resources and Disaster Management department.
One department each has been given to six leaders of BJP who have been made Ministers for the first time.
Santosh Kumar Singh has gotten the Labour Resources Ministry, whereas Surendra Mehta is in-charge of the Sports department. The Panchayati Raj department went to Kedar Prasad Gupta, while Dilip Jaiswal got the Revenue and Land Reforms department. Krish Nandan Paswan is at the helm of the Sugarcane department while Hari Sahani is to be in charge of the Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes Welfare department.