Nitish Kumar’s 20-Year Grip Finally Broken As BJP Seizes Bihar Home Ministry

Nitish Kumar’s 20-Year Grip Finally Broken As BJP Seizes Bihar Home Ministry

Twenty-six ministers took oath in Patna on Thursday. Fourteen of them were from the BJP and only eight from the JDU. Though 10 more ministers can be inducted in the Cabinet and the JDU may get more ministers in the months to come, the optics of the BJP dominance on the swearing-in stage were hard to miss.

The portfolio list came out on Friday, and BJP got the all-important home portfolio for the first time in Bihar. Samrat Choudhary, the deputy chief minister from the BJP, will hold the portfolio, which was held by Kumar for most of the last two decades when he was the chief minister. This change is not minute.

The dye was cast, in fact, when both the BJP and JDU contested 101 seats apiece in Bihar. This was the first time that both parties had contested the same number of seats—the JDU traditionally always contested more. But BJP made it clear this time—there is no ‘elder brother, younger brother' formula in Bihar anymore.

That explains that while the BJP has kept its part of the deal by making Kumar the chief minister, it has had its way by getting the home portfolio as well as denying the LJP any deputy chief minister position. The home portfolio gives one power over the police and responsibility of the law-and-order situation.

Kumar has kept portfolios like general administration, cabinet secretariat, and vigilance, which pertain largely to the bureaucracy in Bihar. While Kumar has retained his earlier eight ministers in the Cabinet, BJP has gone for big changes. It has inducted nine new names, bringing freshness into the Cabinet, while retaining only five earlier ministers. The BJP names, it is learnt, were cleared overnight by the party's top leadership.

However, the most important change remains the home portfolio coming to the BJP. NDA allies like Chirag Paswan have earlier targeted Kumar over the law-and-order situation as he held the home portfolio. The BJP's deputy CM now overseeing the police means a stronger approach towards the unruly elements in the RJD, something the latter has apprehended lately.

This also reshapes the political balance inside the NDA. With this change, law-and-order machinery, policing, and intelligence operations will now operate under BJP's direct command, with a sharper focus on illegal migration and security responses. The move also strengthens Centre-state coordination.

Under Home Minister Amit Shah, Bihar is expected to enforce a tougher line on cross-border infiltration in Seemanchal, ensure tighter collaboration with IB and NIA, and adhere more strictly to the Modi-Shah “zero tolerance" to crime doctrine.

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The transfer effectively ends Kumar's two-decade control over the state's most powerful ministry, underscoring BJP's growing dominance even as the JDU veteran begins his tenth term as chief minister.

The control of this “super ministry" significantly boosts BJP's bargaining power inside the coalition—impacting decisions ranging from Speaker elections to future power-sharing negotiations.

Source: News18
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