Bihar gets major representation in NDA govt with six ministers

Tribune News Service

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, June 9

Six MPs from Bihar have made it to the NDA government as PM Narendra Modi took oath for the third straight term on Sunday. Of these six MPs, four are from NDA partners JD(U), LJP and HAM (S), while two are from BJP – Giriraj Singh and Nityananda Rai, both of whom held Cabinet berths in the previous Modi government.

These MPs have their own caste equations in the state. JD(U)’s Rajeev Ranjan Singh, 69, alias Lalan Singh, is a four-time MP who won from Munger constituency. An upper caste Bhumihar leader, Singh was groomed as a leader under socialist leader and former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur.

Known as a close aide of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Singh also represented Begusarai constituency between 2004 and 2009. When he lost in 2014, Nitish nominated him as an MP in the Rajya Sabha. Later, he was appointed as JD(U) national president.

Two-time JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ramnath Thakur, son of Karpoori Thakur, has also become a Central minister. Ramnath was preferred over other EBC leaders Rampreet Mandal and Dileshwar Kamat.

Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and Hindustan Awam Morcha (secular) leader is a Dalit face of NDA in Bihar. He won from Gaya, the lone seat his party contested. Elected to the state Assembly for the first time in 1980 as a Congress MLA, Manjhi has always occupied a prominent position in the state government.

Chirag Paswan, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president and a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, whose party won all five seats it contested from, will also become a minister at the Centre . He has won from Hajipur seat, which his father Ram Vilas Paswan represented nine times.

Two-term Lok Sabha MP from Ujiarpur and former MoS in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai has also been sworn as a Union minister in the new Modi government. BJP leader Giriraj Singh has also taken oath as the minister for the third consecutive term.

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