The countdown for the much expected Bihar cabinet expansion post elections in four states and a Union Territory has begun, with CM Samrat Choudhary holding consultations with top BJP leaders in New Delhi for the last two days in this regard.
According to senior leaders, the expansion could take place on May 6, the same day Bihar cabinet meeting is scheduled. The election results will also come on Monday. “Let’s see, but it will not take too long now,” said senior BJP leader and former minister Ram Kripal Yadav.
On Sunday, the CM met home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister N Sitharaman, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav, health minister JP Nadda, union ministers Lalan Singh, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Nityanand Rai and Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde. The meeting with Shah lasted around 25 minutes. Before leaving for Delhi, he had also called on former Bihar CM and Rajya Sabha member Nitish Kumar at the latter’s new official residence 7, Circular Road.
“He has been meeting all the senior NDA leaders and that is a good thing to seek their views ahead of the cabinet expansion. I have only advised him to make the cabinet inclusive to give representation to all sections of the society,” said Union minister and patron of HAM-S Jitan Ram Manjhi.
While cabinet expansion is a key agenda, senior NDA leaders said the CM was also paying courtesy visit to top leaders and discussing ways and means for Bihar’s rapid growth, which would require a lot of resources and planning. “The blueprint of cabinet must have been ready by now and after Shah’s endorsement it could happen any day, but there is a lot more to his meeting senior ministers,” they added.
After meeting with union ministers, Samrat Choudhary himself tweeted: “Had a detailed and meaningful discussion on various dimensions of Bihar’s economic development, overall advancement, and progress, besides strengthening of modern medical facilities in Bihar and issues related to the fertiliser sector.”
A senior JD(U) leader said the formula for cabinet expansion would remain the same as it was in December, with the BJP and the JD(U) likely to have 16 ministers each, two seats going to the LJP-RV and one each to HAM-S and RLM, but all berths may not be filled in one go.
In Bihar, the cabinet can have a maximum of 36 ministers, including CM, but the Nitish cabinet also worked with a truncated strength of 27. It remains to be seen how many ministers are inducted in the Samrat cabinet, which is functioning with just a CM and two deputy CMs since taking oath on April 15.
The last Nitish cabinet had eight ministers from the JD(U) and 14 from the BJP, besides two form the LJP and one each from HAM-S and RLM. All of them had taken oath with the CM, keeping nine slots vacant to be filled up later, but it did not happen.
In the previous cabinet, JD(U) had stuck to experienced faces, while BJP went in for some fresh faces. There were 10 new faces in the Nitish cabinet, including eight from the BJP and two from the LJP-R.
BJP leaders said some more new faces, including some from the Bihar Legislative Council, may find place in the expansion to give a generational shift to the cabinet with a young CM, while most of the senior ministers in the previous Nitish cabinet, including former deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, might be retained. A final list will be clear only after the CM’s return to Patna.
“The cabinet will be a blend of new and experienced faces, keeping the social equations in mind, as Bihar has to speed up the development process to live up to people’s huge expectations after a big mandate. In that regard, his meeting with the finance minister and other senior BJP ministers is significant. He had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his last visit,” said a senior BJP leader.
With Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar launching his Yatra from Sunday to feel the political pulse as well as the development work carried out under his father, it is now clear that he is no hurry to join the government, which already has two experienced Deputy CMs from the JD(U).
“Nishant has taken the responsibility of strengthening the organisation and started a campaign from Champaran. The entire JD(U) is with him. Nishant’s activism will strengthen the party, as common people are also enthusiastic about it. People want him to play an active role in politics,” he added.
