Patna: The month-old cabinet in Bihar of Nitish Kumar's government is all set to expand with the Chief Minister on Tuesday saying that the following Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s approval new members will be added on.
At present Nitish's government has 16 ministers and all the 36 departments have been distributed among them resulting in one minister looking after 3 to 4 portfolios. After Nitish's statement, ministers in waiting are now demanding quick expansion of the cabinet.
One of the most senior leaders of the BJP Prem Kumar who has represented Gaya Town for eight terms said, “I hope that soon the cabinet expansion will take place. I must say that the developmental work is surely getting affected due to delay in the cabinet expansion. Early cabinet expansion will pace up the work related to development of the state.”
Some of the big faces in Bihar have been cornered as speculation is high that those who have been adjusted in the various house committees of state assembly as chairperson are unlikely to become ministers now.
Prem Kumar is one of them who will head the petition committee. Nand Kishore Yadav is the second big face who has been made chairperson of the estimate committee. The way Prem and Nand Kishore are anxiously waiting for the ministerial berth so are Ram Narayan Mandal and Vinod Narayan Jha of the BJP.
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It's not only former BJP ministers even JDU ex-ministers are equally anxious to get inducted in the cabinet.
“Expansion of the cabinet is the discretionary power of the chief minister and I am sure that whatever decision he takes would be accepted by everyone. We are just following his path and directive," said Rawat, JDU MLA and former minister.
BJP MLA and spokesperson of the party Naval Kishore Yadav said that the central leadership will take the decision on the expansion of the cabinet.
“BJP is a big and national party, our party is not only restricted in Bihar but its presence is everywhere in the country. So, big parties always take decisions as per their convenience," Naval said.
However, political expert Lalan Singh opined that cabinet expansion is the big challenge for the BJP in the run-up to the Bengal poll.
“The way senior leaders of BJP have been adjusted in the various committees clearly indicates that now BJP wants to give opportunities to the new and young faces. Ahead of the West Bengal assembly election, BJP wants to induct new faces with a clean image so that people should not raise questions on the selection of the cabinet minister,“ Singh stressed.
He further added that the cabinet expansion may take some more time as BJP will leave no stone unturned for the selection of the right candidate for the ministerial berth.
