The caste calculus in Bihar’s Cabinet expansion

Seven new BJP Ministers join Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's Cabinet ahead of State elections, focusing on caste representation.

Seven new Ministers — all from the BJP — took oath to join Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet on Wednesday (February 26, 2025), in a long-expected expansion that comes ahead of the State assembly election due to take place in October and November this year. This takes the Cabinet to its maximum strength of 36, including 21 from the BJP.

Of the seven new Ministers, four are from other backward classes (OBC): Krishna Kumar Mantu, Sanjay Saraogi, Sunil Kumar and Motilal Prasad. Of the rest, Vijay Kumar Mandal is from the extremely backward class (EBC) community, Raj Kumar Singh is a Rajput and Jibesh Kumar is a Bhumihar, both upper caste communities.

Also read | Analysing the 2023 caste-based Census of Bihar

“Since political parties would be plunging into State Assembly elections this year, caste consideration in the representation of Ministers in the Cabinet is an important ingredient in a State which is deftly caste-ridden,” said Nawal Kishore Chaudhary, political commentator and former Patna University professor. “Caste plays a calculus in elections among Hindi-heartland political parties,” he reiterated.

Earlier in the day, state BJP president Dilip Kumar Jaiswal who was also the State Minister for Revenue and Land Reforms resigned from the Cabinet, saying, “In the BJP, we follow the principle of ‘one man, one post’, so accordingly I’ve decided to step down from the post of Cabinet Minister.”

On February 25, the Chief Minister Mr. Kumar had a closed-door meeting with BJP president J.P. Nadda about the long-overdue expansion of the Cabinet, and the two leaders together finalised the names of the new entrants, sources said. On February 26, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary held a meeting of senior party leaders at his official residence in Patna before the new Ministers took oath at the Raj Bhawan at 4 p.m.

The Bihar Cabinet has now reached its maximum strength of 36 members of the 243-strong State Assembly. The BJP now has 21 Ministers, including two Deputy CMs, while the Janata Dal (United) holds 13 posts in the Cabinet. One Minister is from the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S), an NDA partner led by Jitan Ram Manjhi, while the other is the Independent Sumit Kumar Singh.