Nitish gives up key portfolios to BJP; Deputy CM to hold Home department

For the first time in his two decades as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar has given up the Home department and other key portfolios to his allies in the Bharatiya Janata Party, which emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats in the State Assembly election earlier this month.

Mr. Kumar allocated portfolios to 26 Ministers on Friday (November 21, 2025), of which 46% have criminal records, while 88% are millionaires.

One of his two Deputy CMs, BJP leader Samrat Choudhary, has been given the Home department, a portfolio that Mr. Kumar had previously handled personally since November 2005. Other key departments that he has given up to BJP Ministers include Health, Agriculture, Revenue and Land Reforms, Mines, Industry, Road Construction, Urban Development, and Backward and Extremely Backward Class Welfare. The party has 14 members in the Cabinet.

The eight Ministers from Mr. Kumar’s own party, the Janata Dal (United), were allocated the Water Resources, Building Construction, Energy, Rural Development, Rural Works, and Education departments, among others. The party had won 85 seats in the Assembly election.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan, had won 19 seats in the poll and has been given two Cabinet berths, in charge of Public Health Engineering, and the Sugarcane Industry.

The Rashtriya Lok Morcha, led by Upendra Kushwaha, has been allocated the Panchayati Raj portfolio. This will be held by Mr. Kushwaha’s son Deepak Prakash who had taken oath as Minister on November 20 without being a member of either the upper or lower Houses of the Bihar legislature, but is likely to soon be elected as a member of the State Legislative Council. Santosh Suman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) has been given the Minor Water Resources portfolio.

“Since our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ji has been an experienced leader holding the post of CM for such a long period, he knows how to utilise the potential of leaders and it is as per his experience, the Ministers have been allocated the portfolios”, said JD(U) spokesperson Arvind Nishad. “There is nothing to read between the lines. The government will complete its full five-year term,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said that 46% of the Ministers have criminal records, including 38% have with declared criminal records with serious charges. A whopping 88% of them are millionaires. “Altogether 63% Ministers either are graduates or above and the average age of 79% of them is between 51 to 80 years, whereas 11% are women,” the ADR reported.