Nitish Kumar retains top job, but hands 'power' to BJP in Bihar Cabinet reset. Check out
Nitish Kumar may have secured a strong mandate in last week’s Bihar election, but the new cabinet tells a more complicated story about who really holds the reins.
The Chief Minister, now in his tenth term, has ceded the powerful Home Ministry, a post he held almost continuously since 2005, to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Samrat Choudhary, who returns as Deputy CM.
The portfolio distribution announced Friday night makes the BJP’s upper hand hard to miss.
Along with Home, the saffron party has secured a string of heavyweight ministries: Revenue and Mines for Vijay Sinha, Agriculture for Ram Kripal Yadav, Industries for Dilip Jaiswal, Disaster Management for Narayan Prasad, Labour for Sanjay Singh Tiger, and a dual Health–Law charge for former state party chief Mangal Pandey.
BJP leaders also secured the portfolios of Road and Housing, SC/ST Welfare, Tourism, IT and Sports, Fisheries and Animal Resources, and Environment and Climate Change.
The JD(U), despite its impressive jump to 85 seats, 42 more than in 2015, has taken comparatively fewer ministries. Its share includes Social Welfare, Rural Works, Food and Consumer Protection, Education, Water Resources, Energy, and the combined Rural Development–Transport portfolio.
Smaller allies, too, found space in the cabinet with allocations like Sugarcane Industry, Public Health Engineering, Minor Water Resources, and Panchayati Raj.
Nitish relinquishing Home, one of the most coveted portfolios in any Indian government, is being read as a significant political signal.
It marks a clear acknowledgment that the BJP is now operating as the larger partner in the alliance, with 14 ministers in the new cabinet compared to the JD(U)’s nine.
It also hints at potential succession planning. Samrat Choudhary, 57, is widely seen as a rising BJP figure, and handing him the state’s most sensitive department could be an investment in Bihar’s post-Nitish future.
The Chief Minister faced questions over his age and health during the campaign, and stepping back from law-and-order responsibilities could allow him to focus on broader governance issues.
Sworn in for a record tenth term, Nitish Kumar has once again outmaneuvered skeptics who wrote him off as “too old” or politically spent.
If he completes this term, he will surpass former Sikkim CM Pawan Chamling to become India’s longest-serving Chief Minister.
But with the BJP’s dominance now clearly outlined in the cabinet, the next five years may shape not just Nitish Kumar’s legacy, but Bihar’s political succession story as well.
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