New Delhi:
Nitish Kumar led his Janata Dal to an emphatic win in last week’s Bihar election, picking up 85 of the state’s 243 seats – 42 more than its 2015 result and only four fewer than allies BJP – and retained his hold on the Chief Minister’s chair, but the wily politician won’t have it all his way.
The 74-year-old has surrendered the Home Ministry portfolio, his for nearly two decades, to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Samrat Choudhary, who returns as the JDU boss’ deputy.
Vijay Sinha, the other BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister, has been given the Revenue and Mines ministries in allotments confirmed Friday night. BJP leaders were also given the critical Agriculture (Ram Kripal Yadav), Backward Classes Welfare (Rama Nishad), Disaster Management (Narayan Prasad), Industries (Dilip Jaiswal), and Labour (Sanjay Singh Tiger) posts.
And ex-Bihar BJP boss Mangal Pandey has been given a double charge – Health and Law.
Other posts given to the BJP are Road and Housing (Nitin Nabin), SC & ST Welfare (Lakhendra Raushan), Tourism (Arun Shankar Prasad), IT and Sports (Shreyasi Singh), Fisheries and Animal Resources (Surendra Mehata), and Environment and Climate Change (Pramod Kumar).
The JDU got the Social Welfare (Madan Sahni), Rural Works (Ashok Choudhary), Food and Consumer Protection (Leshi Singh), Rural Development and Transport (Shrawon Kumar), Water Resources (VK Choudhary), Energy (Vijendra Yadav), and Education (Sunil Kumar) berths.
Smaller allies were given the Sugarcane Industry and Public Health Engineering departments (these went to the Lok Janshakti Party), the Minor Water Resources (to the Hindustan Awam Morcha), and Panchayati Raj (to the Rashtriya Lok Manch).
On Nitish’s Home Ministry ‘surrender’
Nitish Kumar first took charge of Bihar’s Home Department – among the most prized in any state or federal set-up in India – in November 2005 and has held it almost ever since.
The exception was between May 2014 and February 2015; he resigned after the JDU flopped in the 2014 federal election and Hindustan Awam Morcha’s Jitan Manjhi took over both posts.
Ceding it to the BJP, therefore, has been seen as a big statement, including an acknowledgement the saffron party is the ‘big brother’, at least for now, in their relationship.
The BJP and JDU contested the 2020 election together as well. On that occasion Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party won 74 seats, one fewer than the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.
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