Nitish Kumar Hands Over Home Portfolio to BJP's Samrat Choudhary in Bihar Cabinet Reshuffle

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has marked a significant shift in his cabinet, relinquishing control of the crucial home portfolio after 20 years. This move has been met with a flurry of new assignments as his deputy Samrat Choudhary, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, takes charge of the law and order department. Choudhary's new role comes a day after Kumar and his two deputies, including Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both BJP members, were sworn in along with 24 other ministers. The reshuffle saw Kumar retain most of his previous portfolios, except for the home department, which he had held alongside general administration, cabinet secretariat, and election duties. This move is seen as a strategic shift, with Choudhary emerging as the second-most influential figure in the cabinet after Kumar. Choudhary's previous roles included finance and commercial taxes, as well as panchayati raj departments. The new cabinet assignments have been met with mixed reactions, with the Opposition criticizing the portfolio allocation. RJD spokesperson Ejaj Ahmed stated that the BJP has successfully achieved its plan, with Nitish Kumar serving as a 'face' while the BJP holds the reins. Key appointments include: - Samrat Choudhary: Home portfolio - Vijay Kumar Sinha: Revenue and land reforms, mines and geology - Bijendra Prasad Yadav: Energy, planning & development, excise & prohibition, finance and commercial taxes - Vijay Kumar Chaudhary: Water resources, parliamentary affairs, information and public relations, building construction departments - Shrawon Kumar: Rural development, transport - Ashok Chaudhary: Rural works - Leshi Singh: Food and consumer protection - Mohd Zama Khan: Minority welfare department - Mangal Pandey: Health portfolio, law & justice - Dilip Jaiswal: Industries - Nitin Nabin: Road construction, urban development - Ram Kripal Yadav: Agriculture - Arun Shankar Prasad: Tourism, art, culture and youth affairs - Surendra Mehta: Animal husbandry and fisheries - Narayan Prasad: Disaster management - Sanjay Singh Tiger: Labour resources - Rama Nishad: Backward and extremely backward classes welfare - Lakhendra Kumar Raushan: Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare - Shreyasi Singh: Sports and information technology - Pramod Kumar: Forest environment and cooperative departments - Santosh Kumar Suman: Minor irrigation - Deepak Prakash: Panchayati raj department - Sunil Kumar: Education, science and technology - Sanjay Kumar: Sugarcane industries - Sanjay Kumar Singh: Public health engineering department (PHED) - Manish Pandey: Commited to the objective of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - Arvind Nishad: All major decisions are taken at the level of CM, and hence it is immaterial who is holding which department if all ministers are working as a team.