Explained : This Time Inside NDA And INDIA and Its Impact

File photo of Nitish Kumar (IANS)

Patna: Battle lines are once again unfolding in Bihar politics in the New Year. With the Opposition virtually decimated in the 2025 Assembly elections, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners are looking for opportunities for one-upmanship among themselves, and the first on the list is cabinet expansion by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Apart from Nitish, the state cabinet has just 25 ministers, though its full strength is 36 according to the constitutional provisions that limit the size to 15 per cent of the strength of the Assembly, which happens to be 243. This leaves the scope for the induction of 10 more ministers.

At present, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 13 ministers, Nitish’s Janata Dal United (JDU) has eight, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R) has two, while Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM(S) and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) have one minister each in the cabinet.

The number of departments in the state is 48 as of now, and 11 ministers have more than one portfolio with them. In fact, some like Bijendra Prasad Yadav of the JDU have to take care of up to five important departments like finance, commercial taxes, energy, prohibition, and planning and development.

So, the question arises when will Nitish expand his cabinet? “The privilege of expanding his cabinet rests with the Chief Minister. He will certainly expand it for the sake of good and smooth governance. It will be done after the kharmas (the inauspicious one-month period that ends at Makar Sankranti),” JDU Bihar unit president and Mahnar MLA Umesh Singh Kushwaha told ETV Bharat.

However, the problem is which party will get how many berths in the cabinet. The NDA has at present 202 seats in the Assembly, with the BJP as the largest party with 89 seats, with the JDU following it with 85. The LJP(R) has 19, HAM(S) has five, and RLM has four seats.

Several NDA leaders said that the cabinet berths were distributed on the basis of the formula of one minister for every 5.6 MLAs, with the smaller partners like HAM(S) and RLM being accommodated at a bit of a sacrifice by the bigger partners. The BJP thought it wise to get as many ministers inducted as it could because of its previous experience with Nitish when he had stalled cabinet expansion for many months.

“Going by the formula of 5.6 MLAs for one berth, we can get two to three more berths in the expansion, including the position vacated by Nitin Nabin, who has been made the national executive president of the party. LJP(R) will get one more seat, while the remaining six to seven berths will go to the JDU. But we want four berths because we are the largest party in the state,” a senior BJP leader said.

BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel pointed out that everything was fine in the NDA and the relationship between his party and the JDU was without any hiccups.

“Our understanding is that the cabinet expansion is Nitish’s prerogative. There is no trouble or problem in this. Positions are vacant and he will expand it in the coming days. Three new departments have also been formed recently to fulfill the promises made in the Assembly polls, and they also might need separate ministers,” Patel said.

However, the JDU is in no mood to accommodate the BJP any further and is trying to increase the number of its MLAs. Back operations are already going on to bring the Opposition MLAs to its fold. The first targets are the 25 Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislators, six from the Congress and the lone one from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Any split will bolster the JDU numbers and in turn the number of cabinet berths for it.

In fact, JDU chief spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar recently claimed, “At least 18 RJD MLAs are in touch with our party and want to cross over. Nothing could be ruled out in politics.” The BJP is also trying to split the Opposition parties and increase its strength in the Assembly. It would keep it ahead of the JDU and could also come in handy if it ever decides to shrug off Nitish and his party and go with other NDA members to form a government headed by its own chief minister.

A split in any party can survive the touchstone of law only if the breakaway faction has two-thirds of the entire strength or number. On the other hand, the RJD leaders have pooh-poohed the talks about efforts to engineer defections in the party.

“All these talks by the BJP and JDU leaders are nonsensical. They both are squabbling and targeting each other for supremacy. With such a huge majority to the NDA in the Assembly, the two parties are in a very comfortable position. Why will they split our party and take our MLAs? They neither need them to prove majority in the House, nor will they make them ministers,” RJD Bihar general secretary and spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said.

INDIA Bloc falters further

The health of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which is also known as the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, is not in good shape either. It is still to come to terms with the devastating and humiliating defeat it suffered in the polls. It has just 35 MLAs in the house.

The impact of the defeat has been worsened with RJD leader and INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Prasad Yadav flying to Europe in December first week on a month-long holiday.

Tejashwi’s vacation has already ruffled the feathers of senior RJD leaders. Former MP Shivanand Tiwari has already questioned his absence from the state, which has demoralised the party workers. He wrote on social media platforms, asking him to return to Bihar and roam in the rural hinterland to instill confidence among them.

The Congress is also evaluating whether it has benefited from its alliance with the RJD in the state and keeping itself at the second position in the setup. Some of its senior leaders have openly questioned the usefulness of the alliance and have advocated going solo.

“There is no Mahagathbandhan in Bihar now, and our party should go alone in the state instead of allying with the RJD,” senior Congress leader and All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Shakeel Ahmad Khan told reporters earlier this week.

Khan added that the Congress was not “benefitting politically” by staying in the alliance with the RJD, and there was no relevance of it in Bihar anymore. He is considered close to the top leadership of the Grand Old Party, and his words carry much weight. There could be more development on this front in the coming days. For others, it is just wait and watch right now. The picture would become clearer only after the Makar Sankranti festival.

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