Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar’s son, Nishant Kumar, was among 32 NDA leaders who took oath as ministers at a function held at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Thursday.
As many as 15 leaders from the BJP, 13 from JD(U), two from LJP(RV), and one each from HAM and RLM were sworn in as ministers. Five new faces have been inducted into the new cabinet.
The swearing in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister J P Nadda, former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and several other senior leaders of the ruling alliance.
Nishant, an engineer by profession, was earlier reluctant to join the cabinet but gave his consent after senior JD(U) leaders, including Sanjay Kumar Jha, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, and Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, persuaded him to reconsider his decision.
Earlier, there was speculation that he might assume the role of Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister. He, however, refused to accept the post. Sources said Deputy Chief Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav would step down after Nishant decided to join the government.
Samrat Choudhary became the BJP’s first Chief Minister after his predecessor Nitish Kumar moved to the Rajya Sabha and stepped down from the post.
On April 15, Samrat had taken oath as Chief Minister, while JD(U) legislators Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers.
Among those who took oath as ministers were Vijay Kumar Sinha, Shrawan Kumar, Nishant Kumar, Dilip Jaiswal, Leshi Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Nitish Mishra, Damodar Rawat, Sanjay Singh “Tiger”, Ashok Chaudhary, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Arun Shankar Prasad, Madan Sahni, Santosh Kumar Suman, Rama Nishad, Ratnesh Sada, Kumar Shailendra, Sheila Kumari, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Lakhendra Kumar Roshan, Sunil Kumar, Shreyashi Singh, Mohd Zama Khan, Nandkishor Ram, Sailesh Kumar, Pramod Kumar, Shweta Gupta, Mithilesh Tiwari, Ramchandra Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Sanjay Kumar, and Deepak Prakash.
Governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) administered the oath of office to the ministers.