Nitish again Bihar CM, Lalu’s younger son his deputy

Jitendra K Shrivastava

Patna, November 20

Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for a third straight term at Gandhi Maidan today. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s younger son Tejaswi Yadav was the next to be sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister in the presence of predominantly non-BJP leaders.

Nitish kept the Home, General Administration and Public Relations departments with him, while Tejaswi, the youngest minister at 26, was given the charge of three important portfolios — Road Construction, Building Constructions and Backward Class Development.

Tejaswi’s elder brother Tej Pratap was also given three core portfolios — Health, Forest and Environment, Backward and Extremely Backward Class Welfare Ministry. Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui has been entrusted with the Finance portfolio.

The holding of number 2, 3 and 4 positions with important portfolios indicates the dominance of the RJD, the largest constituent in the alliance government with 80 seats, in the Cabinet.

Of the 178 seats won by the grand alliance, the JD-U had won 71 and the Congress 27 for the 243-member legislative assembly.

Governor Ram Nath Kovind had administered the oath of secrecy to Nitish and his 28-member Council of Ministers — 12 from JD-U, 12 from RJD and four from the Congress.

New faces to join the Nitish Cabinet from the JD-U are Shailesh Kumar, Kumari Manju Verma, Madan Sahani and Kapil Deo Kamat.

It appears that Nitish has kept social equations in mind while inducting ministers. Seven faces from Yadav and four from Muslim community witnessed Nitish’s social engineering, while Dalit, EBC, Kushwahas and forward block have been given due place in the Cabinet.

Three members of the Bihar Legislative Council — JD-U leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary and Madan Mohan Jha of the Congress — were also administered the oath. While Singh has been allotted the Water Resource department, Chaudhary got the Education and IT department and Jha got the Revenue and Land Reforms department. Leaders who attended the grand oath-taking ceremony include Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who arrived about an hour late, former PM HD Devegowda, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu represented the Union Government. CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D Raja also attended the function.

The RJD had won 80 seats of the 178 seats of grand alliance, while the JD won 71 and the congress 27 in 243-member legislative assembly of Bihar.

Rahul arrives an hour late

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi arrived an hour late for the ceremony as his flight was delayed by poor weather

Who gets what

Nitish Kumar: Home, General Administration and Public Relations

Tejaswi Yadav: Road Construction, Building Constructions & Backward Class Development

Tej Pratap: Health, Forest and Environment, Backward & Extremely Backward Class Welfare Ministry

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