Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Nitish Kumar to induct two ministers today

PATNA: In an apparent bid to maintain “caste balance” and pacify sulking party members, the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government will be inducting two
new ministers on Wednesday. They are Bhavesh Chandra Thakur and Renu Kumari. Governor R L Bhatia will administer oath to them at Rajbhavan at 12 noon.

The cabinet expansion is taking place after due permission was obtained from the Election Commission. The move to include two new ministers was necessitated following the resignations of agriculture minister Nagmani and minister of state for disaster management Nitish Mishra recently.

Both Nagmani and Mishra quit the ministry following denial of tickets for the Lok Sabha elections to them. Mishra had also expressed his unhappiness over the neglect of Brahmins in the JD(U) list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. While Nagmani later left the party and joined RJD, Mishra is still in JD(U). Mishra is son of former CM Jagannath Mishra who quit JD(U) on Sunday.

Sources said the two new ministers will be of cabinet rank.

They may also be allocated their portfolios the same day. While Thakur, a two-term MLC, is a Brahmin, Kumari is Kushwaha by caste. The two ministers who quit also belonged to these castes. Incidentally, both Thakur and Kumari were also ticket aspirants and were not very happy after being denied the same. Thakur wanted to contest from Sitamarhi while Kumari was an aspirant for Khagaria, the Lok Sabha seat she represented in 1999.

However, Thakur and Kumari are happy now. “Though the Lok Sabha was my first preference, I am happy the party is giving me a big responsibility,” said Thakur. Kumari is a PhD. She has done her doctorate on Gandhian thoughts. The two are being made ministers for the first ever time.

Source : Times of India

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