PATNA, India, 14 April 2008 — In a major Cabinet expansion, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday brought 19 new faces into his 28-month-old National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and dropped 10 ministers.
Gov. R.S. Gavai administered the oath of office to the 17 new Cabinet ministers and two ministers of state here. The strength of the Council of Ministers has now gone up from 27 to 36.
Kumar told reporters that new entrants were being given a chance to perform and contribute in the development of the state.
Nagmani, a senior Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator and former central minister who served in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, was among the new faces.
Other new Cabinet ministers are Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bhola Singh, Ram Pravesh Rai, Dinesh Prasad, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Sahid Ali Khan, Chedi Paswan, Giriraj Singh, Renu Devi, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Hari Prasad Sao, Damodar Rawat, Hari Narayan Singh, Ramanand Singh and Avadesh Narayan Singh.
Manjhi, a Dalit leader, was forced to resign soon after he was inducted into the council of ministers in 2005 following a controversy over his alleged involvement in a teachers’ training institutions scam in the 1990s. Those inducted as minister of state are Jamshed Ashraf and Vayasdeo Prasad.
Hours ahead of the expansion of the Cabinet, the resignations of 10 ministers were accepted.
Official sources said Kumar had asked his ministerial colleagues on Saturday to submit their resignations.
“All ministers submitted their resignations yesterday and Gov. Gavai accepted the resignations of 10 of them with immediate effect,” a source said.
The 10 who were dropped include Rural Development Minister Vaidyanath Mahto, Building Construction and Housing Minister Monajir Hasan, Youth, Art and Culture Minister Janardan Sigrawal, Welfare Minister Rameshwar Paswan, Minister of State for Food, Supply and Commerce Suchitra Devi, Minister of State for Information and Public Relations Arjun Rai, Minister of State for Transport Ajit Kumar, Minister of State for Minority Welfare Manzar Alam and Minor Water Resources Minister Vishwa Mohan Kumar.
