Lalu’s son appointed Nitish’s Deputy; 28 ministers also take oath
Anwarul Hoda / AMN / PATNA —–
JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar Friday sworn in as chief minister of Bihar for the 5th time at sprawling Gandhi Maidan in presense of top leaders of different parties and from different parts of the country. Governor Ramnath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Kumar and 28 council of minister of new government in a grand ceremony. Apart from political bigwigs and other dignitaries huge gathering was present at the venue. Lalu Prasad’s son Tejaswi Yadav and Tejpratap Yadav were sworn in as cabinet ministers.
Younger son of Mr. Prasad has been accorded status of Deputy Chief Minister with three important portfolios like road construction department. His elder brother Tejpratap Yadav has got health department. Nitish Kumar has kept department of home affairs, Information and public relations, and general administration department under him.
In council of ministers 28 legislators including some MLCs took oath. 12 legislators each from JD(U) and RJD quota has got berth in new government. Congress party got four ministerial berths. Four former ministers from erstwhile Nitish Kumar government were also inducted. They are Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Jai Kumar Singh and Shrawan Kumar.
Vijendra Yadav has been allotted energy portfolios while Congress state president was given Information and Technology department.
Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui has got finance department. In new government all caste combination and social equations have been taken care of by giving representations to minorities, SCs, OBCs , EBCs and upper caste legislators
Kumar retained Home, Information and Publicity and General Administration departments with him.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, whose party was also a major beneficiary of the grand alliance, Minister H D West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, National Conference leaders and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar and AIUDF leader from Assam Badaruddin Ajmal were among those present at the ceremony.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who was deputed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was also present.
A number of Congress chief ministers including Virbhadra Singh (Himachal Pradesh), Oommen Chandy (Kerala), Tarun Gogoi (Assam) and Siddaramiah (Karnataka) (CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, DMK’s M K Stalin and T R Baalu also attended the event.
Some allies of BJP Akali Dal Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal (Akali Dal) and Ram Das Kadam and Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena) were also present.
NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, JMM leader and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Party, also a former CM were present.
Gandhi reached the venue only at the fag end of the ceremony due to late arrival from Delhi.
Venkaiah Naidu sat beside RJD President Lalu Prasad and was seen talking to him from time to time. Leaders from Indian National Lok Dal, INLD and AGP attended the event.
Though Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his CM son Akhilesh Yadav were invited but not peresent.
Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury shared the stage as did Kejriwal and former chief minister Sheila Dixit and Gogoi and AGP leader Prafulla Mahanta.
Rahul Gandhi shook hands and hugged RJD chief Lalu Prasad amid cheers by the crowd. Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant and elder brother Satish were present on the occasion.
Lalu Prasad’s entire family including wife Rabri Devi and seven daughters along with sons-in-law sat in THE VVIP area and were seen cheering Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav in particular.
Ministers from RJD who took oath are Tejaswi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Alok Kumar Mehta, Chandrika Rai, Ram Vichar Rai, Shiv Chandra Ram, Abdul Gafoor, Chandrasekhar, Munneshwar Chaudhary, Anita Devi and Vijay Prakash.
Those from JD(U) are Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Shrawan Kumar, Jay Kumar Singh, Krishnandan Prasad Varma, Maheshwar Hazari, Shailesh Kumar, Manju Varma, Santosh Kumar Nirala, Khursheed alias Firoz Ahmad, Madan Sahni and Kapildeo Kamat apart from Nitish Kumar.
Congress is represented in the cabinet by Ashok Choudhary, Awdesh Kumar Singh, Abdul Jalil Mastan and Madan Mohan Jha.
Two women, one each from JD(U) and RJD Manju Varma and Anita Devi respectively, got place in the new Bihar cabinet.
Seven more could be accommodated in the Cabinet as under the constitutional provision a maximum of 15 per cent ministers of the total strength of the house is allowed.
RJD had won 80 seats, JD(U) 71 and Congress 27 out of a total of 178 seats of alliance in the 243-member house.
JD(U) saw eight new faces in the ministry. Only Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Shrawan Kumar and Jay Kumar Singh were members of the outgoing cabinet.
Many prominent faces of the previous ministries like Shyam Rajak, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Leshi Singh and Ranju Geeta could not find berth in the cabinet this time.