July 30, 2017: Recently, there was a sudden change in Bihar's political status quo. Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister, dumped his previous allies to form a new government. 27 Ministers have been inducted in the new Bihar Cabinet.
Nitish's party, the JD(U), had previously allied with the Congress Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Having dumped them, Nitish and his party have allied with BJP. As a result of the new formation, new representatives have been chosen by the Cabinet. Additionally, the CM has chosen BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi as his deputy.
Out of the total 27 ministers, 12 are BJP representatives while 14 are from JD(U) itself. One member is from the Lok Janshakti Party. The Chief Minister has given the BJP highest ever representation. The total number of ministers from BJP in the 2010 Nitish-BJP coalition was 11. The political situation in Bihar has been turned on its head.
Nitish Kumar has taken up the responsibility for general administration, home, and vigilance departments. His deputy from BJP will be responsible for the forest, finance, IT, and commercial tax. The department of energy, excise and prohibition went to Bijendra Yadav from JD(U).
Also, Kumar's new cabinet has one woman minister and one minister from the minority community. Both belong to the JD(U). From BJP's side, EBC and SC communities have been given representation. The BJP ministers were reportedly shortlisted by Deputy Sushil Kumar and Nityanand Rai, the Bihar BJP President. Also involved in the selection were BJP President Amit Shah and the Union Minister Arun Jaitley.
– prepared by Saksham Narula of NewsGram. Twitter: @Saksham2394