The much awaited expansion of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet finally happened with almost a three-month delay on Tuesday, as Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan administered the oath to office and secrecy to 17 ministers — nine from the BJP and eight from the Janata Dal United (JDU).

With this the total number of ministers, including Nitish, went up to 31. Bihar can have 36 ministers or 15 per cent of the size of its 243-member legislative Assembly.

Former Union minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, deceased movie actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s cousin Niraj Kumar Singh ‘Bablu’, Samrat Chaudhary, Janak Ram, Subash Singh, Narayan Prasad, Nitish Navin, Alok Ranjan Jha and Pramod Kumar were among the BJP leaders who got the ministerial berths in the expansion.

Shrawan Kumar, Sanjay Jha, Madan Sahni, Lesi Singh, Jayant Raj, former IPS officer Sunil Kumar, Jama Khan, and independent MLA Sumit Singh were sworn-in as ministers from the JDU side.

The expansion came ahead of the budget session scheduled to commence from February 19. It had become more necessary because each of the existing 14 ministers were groaning under the weight of several departments. The ministers have to participate in the discussions on their respective department’s budget during the session.

It also put a full stop on the ongoing tussle between the two main ruling partners — JDU with 44 seats and BJP with 74 — over the number of ministers in the cabinet. The two parties have now 13 and 16, ministers respectively. One minister each is from the former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) and Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP).

Though the JDU failed to have ministers equal in number to the BJP, despite blaming the latter for its debacle in the Assembly polls, the difference between the two parties is not much. If the number of ministerial departments with the two parties is considered, the JDU has 20 and the BJP has 21.

Soon after the expansion, Nitish extended congratulations to the newcomers in the cabinet allocated the departments to them.

“Whenever a cabinet is formed we keep in mind everything. Focus is given on the representation of every region and section of the society in it. The strength of the cabinet is limited, still we try to provide representation of people of every area in a broader manner,” Nitish said while reacting to questions by media persons.

The induction of the 52-year-old Shahnawaz, arguably the most recognised among the few minority faces of the BJP, indicates a tectonic shift. It indicates that the saffron party is trying to project a benign, secular and inclusive face in the state. It had attracted sharp criticism for not fielding any Muslim candidate during the Assembly polls held in October–November last year. Shahnawaz was weaned away from the central politics and made an MLC last month.

Among the nine new ministers from the BJP, only one (Pramod Kumar), has been a member of the cabinet previously. This shows that the party is now completely in the mode to overhaul itself in the state, without even bothering about having an optimal mix of experienced and inexperienced ministers from its side in the cabinet. At present, only three out of its total 16 cabinet members have previously been ministers.

On the other hand, the JDU has relied more on seasoned leaders with experience in the expansion, but has brought in new and younger faces also, indicating that it is seeing to the days after Nitish quits active politics.

The JDU lured lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Jama Khan to its fold and made him a minister to compensate for not having even a single member in the Assembly or in the cabinet. It had given tickets to 11 Muslim leaders in the state polls, but none of them won. Its move reveals that it is still eyeing the minority votes in Bihar despite being with the BJP. It could also mean that it is preparing for an eventuality when it is no longer a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Though Nitish talked about representation to different regions and sections of the society in the cabinet expansion, the focus has been more on the Gopalganj, Kosi and Mithila regions as both JDU and BJP have competed with each other to induct more ministers from these areas at the expense of others.

As far as social equations are concerned, both the parties have focused on giving representations to various

groups, but the attention has been more on the backward castes, extremely backward castes and the scheduled castes.

Meanwhile, several leaders from the BJP expressed anger on the way the party picked its ministers.

“The party has ignored experienced, educated leaders while choosing ministers. At least 12 MLAs have contacted me and expressed displeasure with the party. We will now sit together and think about the future course of action,” senior BJP MLA Gyanendra Singh Gyanu told reporters.

Gyanu, Nitish Mishra and a few others were among the cabinet hopefuls and figured in the list of leaders that could be made ministers. However, sources in the BJP and the JDU had revealed that Nitish was against them being inducted into the cabinet. They had previously been in the JDU, but had rebelled a few years ago and switched sides.