New Delhi: The much-awaited Cabinet expansion completed on Tuesday in Bihar as 17 new ministers took the oath. Among the newly inducted ministers the prominent faces include BJP's senior leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Bankipur MLA Nitin Nabin and Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's cousin Neeraj Singh Babloo.
However, besides a few, the Cabinet of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has young leaders in plenty that indicates that both – JDU and BJP – is preparing a second line of leaders to carry forward the parties' batons.
Bihar Governor Phagu Chouhan administered the oath of office to nine ministers from the BJP and eight from the JD(U) at the Raj Bhawan in Patna.
After the expansion, the state Cabinet now has 34 ministers and the state Cabinet can have up to 36 ministers, including the CM.
Among others, who took oath during the cabinet expansion of the Nitish Kumar government, are Sumit Kumar Singh, Sanjay Kumar Jha, muscleman politician Jama Khan, Pramod Kumar, Shravan Kumar, etc.
In case of Shahnawaz Hussain, who is now Bihar's Industry Ministry, took oath as a minister in the Nitish Kumar government after a gap of over 20 years when he was appointed as a Union minister. With this, Shahnawaz, who was Nitish Kumar's ministerial colleague in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, will now have to work under Kumar.
The other interesting part of this Cabinet expansion is the elevation of Bankipur MLA Nitin Nabin, who is the son of late Navin Kishore Prasad Sinha.
Nabin has been appointed as a Cabinet minister in Nitish Kumar government and allotted high-profile Road Construction Ministry.
As per party insiders, Cabinet berth to Nabin may be a 'tribute' to his father who was "removed"
from the list of probable Cabinet ministers in the last minute development in 2005 when the BJP-JD(U) alliance had come to power for the first time after destroying the citadel of Lalu Prasad.
In that year, except Sinha, all his contemporaries such as Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Ashwini Choubey, etc were appointed as Cabinet ministers.
According to party insiders, Nabin's father and his key supporters were served show-cause notices for protesting at the party office against the decision.
However, as per party leaders, due to this "humiliating" act, Sinha was in "a state of shock" and was found 'dead' under mysterious circumstances in Delhi-based Bihar Niwas in January 2006.
JD(U) MLC Sanjay Kumar Jha, who is considered as a close aide of Nitish Kumar, took oath in Maithili and allotted the portfolio of Water Resources Ministry. JD(U)'s Shravan Kumar -- a seven-time MLA from Nalanda – is also Cabinet minister with the portfolio of Rural Development Ministry.
The induction of Jama Khan, a JDU leader who switched over from the BSP, may prove to be a controversial decision as there are around two dozen criminal cases registered against him.