New Delhi: The two-member Bihar Cabinet comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was expanded on Tuesday (August 16, 2022) with about 30 members being inducted from different constituents of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ including RJD chief Lalu Pratap Yadav’s elder son Tej Pratap. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Alok Mehta, Madan Sahni, Lalit Kumar Yadav, Leshi Singh were also among those who took the oath in the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in the state capital Patna.

Tej Pratap Yadav, RJD leader and brother of Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, takes oath as a minister in the Bihar cabinet. #BiharCabinetExpansion pic.twitter.com/68zpjRUuPO
— ANI (@ANI) August 16, 2022

Meanwhile, the BJP’s central leadership is likely to hold a meeting with the party’s Bihar unit leaders in Delhi on Tuesday, days after the JD(U) parted ways with it and formed a new government in the state. The meeting will reportedly be chaired by BJP national president J P Nadda and the general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh will also be present.

They are expected to deliberate upon the party’s future course of action, and the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

According to the sources, Union Ministers Ashwini Choubey, Giriraj Singh, and Nityanand Rai, and the party’s senior leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Sushil Modi – all of whom are from Bihar – may also attend the meeting

BJP Bihar unit president Sanjay Jaiswal, former deputy chief ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, and former minister in the state government Shahnawaz Hussain are also likely to attend the meeting.

It is notable that this will be BJP’s first meeting since JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar snapped ties with the saffron party on August 9 and joined hands with the RJD-led alliance.

(This is a developing story)