A day after its expansion, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet witnessed a high-profile reshuffle on Thursday marking a significant shift in the portfolios allotted earlier to senior ministers.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. (Photo: IANS)
A day after its expansion, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet witnessed a high-profile reshuffle on Thursday marking a significant shift in the portfolios allotted earlier to senior ministers. Five ministers from the BJP and one from the Hindustan Awami Morcha, who had two-three departments under their wings, were forced to give up some of them.
However, the reshuffle had no impact on the portfolios held by ministers from the JDU quota. Similarly, the department of independent MLA Sumit Singh also remained unchanged.
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Among the new ministers, Sanjay Sarawagi has got the Revenue and Land Reforms Department. Jivesh Mishra has been made incharge of the Urban Development and Housing Development Department. Sunil Kumar has been given the Forest and Environment Department. Raju Singh is the new Tourism Minister. Motilal Prasad has become Art and Culture Minister. Krishna Kumar Mantu has been made the Information Technology Minister. Vijay Mandal has got the charge of the Disaster Management Department
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Among the ministers whose departments have been changed is Nitin Naveen. He has got the Road Construction Department. The department was earlier with Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sinha. Now, he holds Agriculture and Mining Departments.
Senior BJP leader Prem Kumar has got the Cooperative Department. While Mangal Pandey, another senior member of the cabinet, has got the Health and Law Department. Nitish Mishra will have the responsibility of only the Industry Department. HAM leader Santosh Suman has got the Minor Water Resources Department.
Among the new ministers, Jivesh Mishra is the only leader who has been made a minister for the second time. Mishra, who comes from Mithila region, is Bhumihar (upper caste) by caste, which has traditionally been the core vote bank of the BJP in Bihar. Of late, the BJP has noticed a significant shift in Bhumihar votes towards Congress and RJD. Nominating Mishra to the cabinet again shows that the BJP has started working on strengthening its hold on its vote bank.
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