31 MLAs, mostly from RJD, take oath as ministers

New Delhi: The two-member Bihar Cabinet comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav inducted 31 ministers on Tuesday.

Most of the minsters who took oath at Raj Bhawan this morning are from RJD.

The state cabinet can have up to 36 ministers, including the chief minister.

An in-principle agreement was reached that the RJD, which is the largest party in the state assembly, will have a lion's share of ministerial berths, followed by Kumar's JD(U).

The RJD got 16 ministerial berths, followed by the Janata Dal (United) which kept 11. Two legislators from the Congress, one from Jitin Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha and the lone Independent MLA, Sumit Kumar Singh, also took oath. 

Nitish Kumar retained most of the ministers from his party, including Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bijendra Yadav, Shravan Kumar, Ashok Choudhary, Leshi Singh, Sanjay Jha, Madan Sahni, Sheela Kumari and Sunil Kumar.

From RJD, Samir Kumar Mahaseth, Chandrashekhar, Kumar Sarvajeet, Lalit Yadav, Surendra Prasad Yadav and Ramanand Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Alok Mehta took oath as cabinet ministers.

Congress legislators Afaque Alam and Murari Lal Gautam were inducted into the cabinet as ministers, while Hindustani Awam Morcha's Santosh Suman was also sworn in.