Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his cabinet on Sunday. Eight Janata Dal (United) MLAs were sworn inin this cabinet expansion. Governor Lalji Tandon administered oath of office and secrecy to new ministers. It is remarkable that Nitish Kumar had refused to be part of Modi 2.0 government on last Thursday as he was not satisfied with only one cabinet berth. Todays’ cabinet expansion is being seen as a reaction to the BJP’s stand at the centre. It is said that Nitish Kumar’s cabinet expansion is the start of tussle with Modi.
According to sources, Ashok Choudhary, Bima Bharti, Shyam Rajak, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Neeraj Kumar, Sanjay Jha, Lakshmeshwar Rai and Ram Sevak Singh are new ministers, who have taken oath.
The development comes a day after Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar rejected BJP’s offer of one cabinet birth in Modi government 2.0. Coming back to Patna on Friday, Nitish Kumar said that while his party will remain firmly part of the NDA, they will not join Modi government as cabinet members for next five years. He said that he had demanded a fair representation of parties in cabinet according to the number of seats, but his party allotted just one cabinet position like all others, despite 16 MPs Of the party.
