Following the recent Bihar Assembly elections where the NDA secured a decisive victory, a significant cabinet reshuffle has taken place, marking a shift in the power dynamics within the ruling coalition. Nitish Kumar, who was sworn in as Chief Minister for a record tenth time, has ceded the crucial Home Department to BJP's Deputy Chief Minister, Samrat Choudhary. This move signifies a major change as Kumar has held the Home portfolio for most of his tenure since 2005, shaping his image as "Sushashan Babu".
The BJP, having emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, has secured a larger share of ministries in the new cabinet. Samrat Choudhary's appointment as Home Minister underscores the party's strengthened position in the government. In addition to the Home Department, key portfolios such as Land and Revenue, Health, and Law have also been allocated to BJP leaders. Vijay Kumar Sinha, also a Deputy Chief Minister from the BJP, will oversee the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, as well as Mines and Geology. Mangal Pandey will head both the Health and Law Departments. Dilip Jaiswal has been appointed as the Industries Minister, and Nitin Nabin will manage Road Construction along with Urban Development and Housing.
In this reshuffle, the Janata Dal (United) [JDU] has retained the Finance Ministry, which has been assigned to Bijendra Prasad Yadav. This is a notable departure from previous arrangements where the BJP typically held this portfolio. Yadav will also be in charge of the Commercial Tax department. Senior JDU leader Shrawan Kumar has been allotted the Rural Development and Transport departments, while Ashok Choudhary, another JDU leader, has been given the Rural Works portfolio. Leshi Singh will be in charge of Food and Consumer Protection.
Smaller allies within the NDA have also been accommodated in the cabinet. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) [LJP(RV)] has secured the Sugarcane Industry and Public Health Engineering departments. The Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has been allotted Minor Water Resources, and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) has taken charge of Panchayati Raj.
Other ministers and their portfolios include: Ram Kripal Yadav (Agriculture), Sanjay Tiger (Labour Resources), Arun Shankar Prasad (Tourism, Art, Culture, and Youth Affairs), Surendra Mehta (Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Resources), Narayan Prasad (Disaster Management), Rama Nishad (Backward and Extremely Backward Class Welfare), Lakhendra Kumar Raushan (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes welfare), Shreyasi Singh (Information Technology and Sports), and Pramod Kumar (Co-operatives, Environment, Forest and Climate Change).
The NDA's victory in the 2025 elections saw them secure 202 seats out of 243, with the BJP winning 89 and the JDU winning 85. The Mahagathbandhan, the opposition alliance, secured only 35 seats. This reshuffle and the formation of the new government will be closely watched, particularly regarding the fulfillment of pre-poll promises, including the creation of one crore jobs in five years and the empowerment of women.
