GG News Bureau
Patna, 3rd Feb. The portfolios for the new Bihar cabinet were announced on Saturday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will retain the crucial home portfolio, which allows him to maintain control over the state police. However, he has given away the finance portfolio, previously held by his party JD(U), to the new ally BJP.
In addition to home, Kumar has also retained key departments such as cabinet secretariat, election, vigilance, general administration, and all other portfolios that have not been allocated to anyone else.
State BJP chief Samrat Choudhary, who has become a Deputy Chief Minister, has been given the finance portfolio, which has always been held by his party whenever they share power with Kumar.
Previously, when Kumar was in a government with the Mahagathbandhan, which included Congress and RJD, the health and finance departments were held by JD(U).
In addition to finance, Choudhary has also been given the health portfolio, another one that the BJP has held in previous power-sharing arrangements in Bihar. He has also been given commercial tax, urban development and housing, sports, panchayati raj, animal husbandry and fisheries, and law.
Choudhary’s party colleague Vijay Kumar Sinha, also a Deputy Chief Minister, has been given the agriculture, road construction, revenue and land reforms, mining and geology, sugarcane, labour resources, art, culture and youth affairs, minor water resources, and public health engineering departments.
Prem Kumar, a senior BJP leader and one of the three BJP members in the nine-member cabinet, has been given the cooperatives, OBC and Extremely Backward Classes Welfare, disaster management, tourism, and environment and climate change portfolios.
JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has retained parliamentary affairs and has also been given the water resources, transport, building construction, education, and information and public resources departments.
Veteran JD(U) leader Bijendra Yadav, credited by Kumar for transforming the power sector in the state, has retained his department and has also been given the excise and prohibition, planning and development, rural works, and minority welfare portfolios.
JD(U) leader Shravan Kumar has retained the rural welfare portfolio and has also been given the social welfare and food and consumer affairs portfolios.
Santosh Kumar Suman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha has been given the SC and ST welfare and Information Technology portfolios.
