NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded his cabinet by inducting 21 new
ministers
with 6 fresh faces taking the total strength to 30.
The
Bharatiya Janata Party
's
Renu Devi
,
Mangal Pandey
, Niraj Kumar Singh, along with JD(U)'s Ashok Choudhary, were sworn in as ministers in the Bihar Cabinet.
The oath ceremony was administered by governor Rajendra Arlekar in Patna.
The recent cabinet expansion in Bihar witnessed Md Zama Khan from JD(U) emerging as the sole Muslim member, while Ashok Chaudhary, a trusted confidant of the chief minister, also returned to a ministerial position.
Additionally JD(U) included leaders who are back as ministers include Leshi Singh, Sheela Mandal, Madan Sahni, Ratnesh Sada, Sunil Kumar Singh and Jayant Raj.
The other JD(U) ministers are Bijendra Yadav, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Shravan Kumar. Besides BJP's Prem Kumar, who held a cabinet berth till 2020, returned as a minister in January.
Nitish Mishra, another addition to the BJP, is the son of the late Jagannath Mishra, a prominent Congress leader who served as chief minister of Bihar three times. Mishra, who previously belonged to the JD(U), had previously held a cabinet position allotted from the party's quota.
(With input from agencies)
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