Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 16
Nitish Kumar today created a record in Bihar politics by taking oath as Chief Minister for the seventh time and fourth in succession.
The JDU leader was sworn in as Chief Minister for the first time on March 3, 2000.
He would be assisted by two deputy chief ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Ms Renu Devi; missing Sushil Kumar Modi, who had been his companion since 2005.
First meeting of the newly constituted cabinet decided to convene the winter session of the state assembly from November 23. It will continue till November 27, a government notification said. Election of new speaker would be held during the same period.
There are 7 from BJP, 5 from JDU and one each from HAM and VIP.
After the ceremony, Nitish Kumar said: “It was the decision of the BJP to drop Sushil Kumar Modi. Ask them, why was he not included in the list of the ministers?” He did not reply to a question, whether he would miss Sushil Modi.
At Rajendra Mandap of Patna Raj Bhawan here, Nitish and his 14 colleagues took oath in presence of a galaxy of BJP leaders who landed from New Delhi. They included BJP President J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and former chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis.
Entire opposition including RJD, Congress and Left parties boycotted the programme protesting against the “hijacking of people’s mandate”. Former deputy CM was also present.
As JDU led by Nitish Kumar is the junior partner in the NDA in Bihar, the Chief Minister had to concede demands of the BJP leaders who have about double the strength than JDU in the state assembly. There are two deputy CMs, both newly elected MLAs of BJP, Renu Devi, a Noniya (extremely backward castes) and Tarkishore Prasad (a bania from Katihar). They took oath in order of precedence after the chief minister.
Composition of the cabinet confirms dominance of extremely backwards and other backward caste MLAs. Madhubani district, which has 8 MLAs of NDA, got two seats in the cabinet.
Former Speaker of state assembly and JDU leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhiury, veteran JDU leader, Brijendra Prasad Yadav, who was energy minister have been relegated to 8th and 9th in order. PWD minister and Patna Saheb MLA of BJP, Nand Kishore Yadav, has been chosen by BJP as candidate for the office of the Speaker.
Two regional parties-HAM and VIP also got representation in the cabinet when VIP president Mukesh Sahni, who had lost the assembly elections and Santosh Kumar Manjhi, son of the former chief minister and HAM president Jeetan Ram Manjhi were inducted into the cabinet.
In the cabinet, Mewa Lal Chaudhury, a former vice-chancellor of Agriculture University, Sabour who was elected from Tarapur as a JDU candidate has also been included. He was sacked following registration of an FIR by the vigilance department following charges of irregularities in recruitments by Chaudhury.
Ms Sheela Mandal, a former president of Madhubani district board and wife of an engineer is the woman face of JDU in the cabinet. BJP’s Renu Devi started her political career as a volunteer of Durga Vahini in 1980. She had defeated the present state president of BJP, Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal in 2005.
From JDU quota, former education minister and working president of JDU Ashok Kumar Chaudhury was also inducted.
BJP legislator who found berth in the cabinet include former health minister Mangal Pandey, former deputy speaker Amrendra Pratap Singh, whose grandfather Sardar Harihar Singh was chief minister of Bihar, Ramprit Paswan, Jivesh Kumar Mishra who had defeated the Congress candidate and former president of Aligarh Muslim University Students Union, Mohammad Usmani.
Sushil Kumar Modi, who was present at Raj Bhawan said in a tweet: “Mr Nitish Kumar, I wish Bihar will progress under your leadership, Mr Narendra Modi will continue to assist Bihar forever”.
RJD leader Tejashwi wished good luck to Nitish Kumar, “the nominated chief minister” and hoped people would be relieved.
