Patna: Bihar assembly elections are to be held this year. Before this, the cabinet led by Nitish Kumar was expanded on Wednesday. In this cabinet expansion, 7 new ministers have been made. All the seven ministers are from BJP quota, among the seven MLAs who have been made ministers, one is such who was never elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly on a BJP ticket. In the year 2020 also, he reached the assembly on the symbol of another party and later joined the BJP. There are four leaders who have experience of politics of other parties.
Among the new ministers of Nitish government, Vijay Mandal is the most adept face of the politics of defection. Vijay Mandal also has experience of Anand Mohan-led Bihar People’s Party to Lalu Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Janshakti Party. Vijay Mandal was elected MLA from Araria seat for the first time from Anand Mohan’s party in the 1995 Bihar elections. Then he was the only MLA of this party. In the year 2000, he won the election as an independent. He contested on RJD ticket in 2005 but lost the election.
Pradeep Kumar Singh, who became MLA from Araria in 2005, became MP after winning the Lok Sabha election in 2009 general elections and resigned from the membership of the assembly. Vijay Mandal contested on Lok Janshakti Party ticket in the by-election from the vacant Araria assembly seat. In 2010, LJP gave Vijay a ticket from Sikti but he lost. After this, Vijay changed sides again and joined BJP, whose candidate defeated him. He reached the assembly on BJP ticket in 2015 and 2020. If independents are also counted as parties, then Vijay Mandal has experience of five parties.
Raju Singh, who was made a minister in the cabinet expansion, is also close to Vijay Mandal on the basis of experience of political parties. Raju, MLA from Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur, has experience of doing politics with four parties. Raju, who became an MLA for the first time in the Bihar elections of February 2005, became an MLA from Janata Dal (United) in the October 2005 elections. Raju, who was also a JDU MLA in 2010, contested the 2015 elections on a BJP ticket but lost. In the 2020 Bihar elections, he won the election from Mukesh Sahni-led Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) and later joined the BJP. Raju Singh, who has experience of four parties, contested on a BJP ticket but never reached the assembly on the party symbol.
There was not a single JDU quota in the expansion of the Bihar cabinet, but there are two ministers in it who have come to BJP from the Nitish Kumar-led party. The list of these ministers includes the names of Biharsharif MLA Dr Sunil Kumar and Amanour MLA Krishna Kumar Mantu. Two-time BJP MLA Dr Sunil is an MLA for the third time. Sunil was elected as an MLA on a JDU ticket in the 2010 Bihar elections. Like Dr Sunil, Krishna Kumar Mantu also became MLA on BJP ticket in 2015 and 2020 but won the assembly elections for the first time in 2010 from JDU.
