Nitish Kumar hands over home ministry to BJP’s Samrat Choudhary | Full portfolio list

Samrat Choudhary with Nitish Kumar

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday gave the crucial Home Ministry to his deputy, Samrat Choudhary, as portfolios for the new cabinet were declared a day after the oath-taking ceremony held at Patna.

Traditionally, the home department had been held by Nitish Kumar in previous NDA governments. However, this time it went to Choudhary, the BJP’s legislative party leader in Bihar.

Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha has been given the Department of Revenue and Land Reforms.

Bihar cabinet portfolios: Complete list

Samrat Choudhary (BJP): Home Ministry

Vijay Kumar Sinha (BJP): Land & Revenue; Mines & Geology

Mangal Pandey (BJP): Health; Law

Dilip Jaiswal (BJP): Industry

Nitin Nabin (BJP): Road Construction; Urban Development & Housing

Ramkripal Yadav (BJP): Agriculture

Sanjay Tiger (BJP): Labour Resources

Arun Shankar Prasad (BJP): Tourism; Art, Culture & Youth Affairs

Surendra Mehta (BJP): Animal & Fisheries Resources

Narayan Prasad (BJP): Disaster Management

Rama Nishad (BJP): Backward & Extremely Backward Class Welfare

Lakhedar Paswan (BJP): Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe Welfare

Shreyasi Singh (BJP): Information Technology; Sports

Pramod Chandravanshi (BJP): Cooperation; Environment, Forest & Climate Change

Meanwhile, LJP(R) has been given the Sugarcane Industries and Public Health Engineering departments, HAM has been assigned Water Resources, and RLM has received the Panchayati Raj portfolio. The allocation of portfolios for eight remaining ministers is still pending and is expected to be announced soon.

Nitish Kumar takes oath

Bihar's longest-serving CM Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn in for a record 10th term at a grand ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CMs of several NDA-ruled states, and senior alliance leaders.

Kumar was administered the oath of office by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan at the Gandhi Maidan, where a massive makeshift stage was erected for the ceremony, also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, both of whom had arrived in Patna on Wednesday night.

Along with 74-year-old Kumar, 26 ministers took the oath of office: 14 from the Bharatiya Janata Party, eight from Janata Dal (United), two from Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas), and one each from Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).