Nitish's Son Among 32 Ministers Inducted Into Bihar Cabinet In The Presence Of PM Modi, Amit Shah

Patna: The Bihar cabinet was expanded at a star-studded public ceremony at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Flush with success in the high-octane West Bengal Assembly elections, Modi came with a ‘gamchha’ (thin towel) draped around his neck and shoulders. It is a part of the attire in humid states in the eastern India.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin, several other central ministers, including Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh, Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, and leaders of various National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents were present on the occasion.

Bihar Governor Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) administered the oath to office and secrecy to the 32 new entrants to the cabinet. With it, the total number of ministers in the state went up to 35, one short of the full cabinet strength of 36.

The expansion came 22 days after Samrat Choudhary took oath as the chief minister along with Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav as deputy chief ministers.

New ministers being sworn in at a ceremony in Patna on Thursday (ETV Bharat)

Nishant’s cabinet entry

It also marked the entry of former chief minister Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar into the corridors of power. He is expected to carry forward the legacy of his father, who ruled the state for two decades.

Nitish was present on the occasion to witness the moment and Nishant touched his feet to seek blessings for the new innings as a part of the government.

Nishant, 50, was previously reluctant to become a member of the cabinet, citing his inexperience in governance, but relented after embarking on a statewide ‘yatra’ (tour) and realising that he would be able to resolve their issues if he was a minister. He is already a member of the Janata Dal (United) or the JDU, of which his father Nitish is the national president.

The newly sworn in ministers in Bihar on Thursday (ETV Bharat)

The other ministers

The other 31 people who took oath included Shrawon Kumar, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dilip Jaiswal, Leshi Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Nitish Mishra, Damodar Rawat, Sanjay Singh ‘Tiger’, Ashok Choudhary, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Arun Shankar Prasad, Madan Sahni, Santosh Kumar Suman, Rama Nishad, Ratnesh Sada, Kumar Shailendra, Sheila Kumari, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Lakhendra Kumar Raushan, Sunil Kumar, Shreyasi Singh, Zama Khan, Nand Kishore Ram, Shailendra Kumar alias Bulo Mandal, Pramod Kumar, Shweta Gupta, Mithilesh Tiwary, Ram Chandra Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Sanjay Kumar, and Deepak Prakash.

Several of them including, Nitish Mishra, Mithilesh Tiwary, Kumar Shailendra, Nand Kishore Ram, Ram Chandra Prasad, Shweta Gupta, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, and Ratnesh Sada were not a part of the previous Nitish-led cabinet.

Former chief ministers' sons

The expanded cabinet now boasts of three former chief ministers' sons. They include Nishant (son of Nitish Kumar), Nitish Mishra, who is the son of former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, and Santosh Kumar Suman, son of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, presently a Union minister.

While Nishant is a software engineer from BIT Mesra, Nitish Mishra has done his masters from England, while Santosh is a PhD.

Former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the swearing in ceremony of new ministers in Patna on Thursday. (ETV Bharat)

Cabinet break-up

Of these newly sworn-in ministers, 15 are from the BJP, 13 from the JD-U, two from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R), and one each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM(S) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).

With this, the BJP has now total 16 ministers in the cabinet, including chief minister Samrat, while the JDU has 15. These are the top two parties in the legislative Assembly with 88 and 85 MLAs.

Bihar, with a 243-member Assembly, can have a maximum of 36 ministers, as mandated by Article 164(1A) of the Constitution. One position has been kept vacant.

In this image posted on May 6, 2026, Union Home Minister Amit Shah being welcomed by Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, in Patna. (@samrat4bjp/X via PTI Photo)

The parties have opted for a judicious blend of experience, youth and fresh blood in selecting the cabinet members. They have also given due consideration to regional and caste equations, as well as, their perceived vote banks, in the expansion.

Of the 13 JD-U ministers, four each are from the other backward classes (OBC) and extremely backward classes (EBC), three from the scheduled castes (SC), and one each from the general category and minority community.

The BJP has six ministers from the general category, three from the OBC, four from the EBC, and two from the SC. Of the two LJP(R) ministers one is from the general category while another is from the SC category.

HAM (S) minister Santosh Kumar Suman is son of Union minister Manjhi and hails from the SC, while RLM minister Deepak Prakash is son of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha is from the EBC.

PM Modi’s visit

The Prime Minister missed the swearing-in of Samrat, who is the first BJP chief minister of Bihar. He made amends by being present at the cabinet expansion.

“Modi’s visit was to give a grand message to the people that Bihar has now a BJP chief minister, who has his full support and blessings. It also indicated that the party is not letting go of the state despite having its chief minister and would keep expanding at the ground level. It is an open secret that the BJP had to constantly stay under Nitish till he ruled here,” author and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Priyaranjan Bharti told ETV Bharat.

What’s next

While the eagerly awaited cabinet expansion over, the wait for portfolio distribution begins. Samrat is expected to distribute the 47 departments among the ministers.

He is expected to keep the home, general administration and vigilance departments with himself, just like Nitish did most of his tenure, except at the fag end. These three departments give control over the police, state intelligence agencies, prisons, government officials, and anti-corruption activities.

Indications are that Samrat will allocate portfolios to the newly inducted BJP, LJP(R), HAM(S) and RLM ministers from the 29 departments that are currently with him, while allow the JD-U ministers to share among themselves the 18 departments that are presently with the two deputy chief ministers – Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav.

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