Samrat gets home portfolio, finance goes to JD(U) leader as Nitish distributes portfolios

Patna: For the first time in his nearly 20-year tenure as chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar will not hold the home portfolio. On Friday, the department was assigned to his deputy and BJP leader Samrat Choudhary during the allocation of portfolios among ministers of the 27-member new cabinet, which took oath on Thursday. The first meeting of the new cabinet will take place on Nov 25.

According to an official notification issued on Friday by the state’s cabinet secretariat department, the finance portfolio, previously held by either the BJP or the RJD whenever they entered an alliance with the JD(U), has gone to the Nitish Kumar-led party this time. Senior JD(U) leader Bijendra Prasad Yadav has been given the finance and commercial tax departments.


As home minister, Samrat will now oversee the transfer and posting of most senior Indian Police Service officers, including all SPs, DIGs, IGs and ADGPs of the police department. This authority is widely regarded as crucial for political and administrative influence. The administration of all central jails, district jails and sub-divisional jails will also fall under Samrat’s control, as he will additionally head the prison department.

Another deputy chief minister, Vijay Kumar Sinha, has been allotted the revenue & land reforms and mines & geology departments, the notification stated. The CM has retained the general administration department, cabinet secretariat, vigilance and election portfolios.

Earlier in the forenoon, Samrat called on Nitish Kumar at the latter’s residence with a list of departments to be assigned to BJP ministers. The two leaders held discussions for about an hour. According to sources, Samrat handed over the list to the CM, who then held a meeting with senior leaders of the JD(U) to discuss departmental distribution. Later in the evening, the CM and Samrat visited Raj Bhavan and submitted the final list to the governor. The formal notification regarding the portfolio distribution was issued in the late evening, shortly after the governor gave his assent.

Another senior JD(U) leader, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, has been given the building construction, water resources and parliamentary affairs departments while Madan Sahani of the same party has been allotted the social welfare department.

Senior JD(U) leader Shravan Kumar has been given the rural development and transport departments, whereas his party colleague Ashok Choudhary has been assigned the rural works department.

Among BJP ministers, Shreyasi Singh has received the sports and information & technology departments, while Arun Shankar Prasad has been allotted tourism. Sanjay Tiger has been given the labour resources department.

Deepak Prakash of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party and Santosh Suman of HAM(S) have been allotted the panchayati raj and minor water resources departments, respectively.

LJP (RV) MLAs Sanjay Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Singh have become ministers for sugar cane and the public health engineering department. Other ministers include Mangal Pandey (health and law), Dilip Kumar Jaiswal (industries), Leshi Singh (food, consumer & protection), Nitin Nabin (road construction and urban development & housing), Ram Kripal Yadav (agriculture) and Sunil Kumar (education, and science, technology & technical education).

Mohd Zama Khan (minority affairs), Surendra Mehta (animal & fishery resources), Narayan Prasad (disaster management), Rama Nishad (backward class and extremely backward classes welfare), Lakhendra Kumar Roshan (SC & ST welfare) and Pramod Kumar (cooperative) are also among the members of the cabinet, the notification added.

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