Nitish Kumar Returns as Bihar CM for Record 10th Term, Hands Over Home Ministry to BJP

Patna: Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister for an unprecedented tenth time on Thursday, leading his party to a strong comeback by securing 85 seats in the 243-member Assembly — a gain of 42 seats over its 2020 performance.

Despite the JD(U)’s impressive resurgence, the 74-year-old leader has ceded significant ground to alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the new cabinet, most notably by relinquishing the crucial Home portfolio he had controlled for nearly two decades (except for a brief nine-month gap in 2014–15).

The Home Department has been handed to senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, while the other Deputy CM, Vijay Kumar Sinha (BJP), takes charge of Revenue and Mines. The BJP, with 81 seats, has secured 14 ministerial berths in the first phase of cabinet formation announced late Friday, compared to only nine for the JD(U).

Key portfolios allocated to the BJP include:
- Agriculture → Ram Kripal Yadav
- Health & Law → Mangal Pandey
- Industries → Dilip Jaiswal
- Road Construction & Housing → Nitin Nabin
- Disaster Management → Narayan Prasad

The JD(U) retained important departments such as Education (Sunil Kumar), Energy (Vijendra Yadav), Water Resources (VK Choudhary), Rural Development & Transport (Shrawon Kumar), and Food & Consumer Protection (Leshi Singh).

Smaller NDA partners received Sugarcane Industry and Public Health Engineering (LJP-Ram Vilas), Minor Water Resources (HAM-S), and Panchayati Raj (Rashtriya Lok Manch).

Political analysts view the surrender of the Home Ministry — traditionally one of the most powerful levers in any state government — as a clear acknowledgement of the BJP’s dominance within the alliance and a possible signal of succession planning. The 57-year-old Samrat Choudhary is being seen by many as a potential future chief ministerial face.

Some observers also suggest that relieving Nitish Kumar of day-to-day law and order responsibilities will allow the veteran leader, who faced questions about his health during the campaign, to focus on broader governance and development issues.

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