Brief profile of key ministers inducted into new Bihar cabinet on Tuesday

Vijay Kumar Chaudhary JDU who is considered very close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been a member of the Bihar assembly since 1982.In the new Grand Alliance government of Bihar, Chaudhury was allocated the portfolios of Finance, Commercial Taxes, and Parliamentary Affairs ministries.

* Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (JDU) who is considered very close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been a member of the Bihar assembly since 1982.

In the new Grand Alliance government of Bihar, Chaudhury was allocated the portfolios of Finance, Commercial Taxes, and Parliamentary Affairs ministries. He had previously held the posts of Speaker of the Bihar Assembly, Leader of JD (U) Legislature Party in the state Assembly and had been the Minister for Education, Water Resources, Rural Development, Rural Works Engineering, Information and Public Relations, Agriculture, Animal and Fish Resources in the Bihar government. The allocation of finance to Chaudhary is a significant departure from the past as the portfolio has remained with the allies of the JD(U) for the most part.

* Shrawan Kumar (JDU) whose political career started from the JP movement of Bihar in 1974 was allocated the portfolio of Rural Development. An MLA from Nalanda since 1995, Shrawan Kumar is also considered close to the chief minister. In the previous government (JDU and BJP alliance), he was holding the same portfolio.

* Ashok Choudhary (JDU) who holds the previous portfolio (Building Construction) has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Council since 2014. In the 2000 Bihar assembly polls, Choudhary won from Barbigha assembly seat as a Congress candidate. In 2013, he was appointed chief of the Bihar Congress Committee and was elected as a member of the Bihar legislative council in 2014. He left the Congress and joined the JD (U) in 2018. * Sudhakar Singh , the son of RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, was given the portfolio of the Agriculture department. Singh had won from Ramgarh assembly seat on a RJD ticket in the 2020 assembly election.

* Sheela Kumari Mandal (JD-U) who had won from Phulparas assembly seat retains Transport.

In the 2020 assembly election, Mandal had defeated Kripanath Thakur of Congress and Binod Kumar Singh of the LJP. * Mohammad Afaque Alam (Congress) had won from the Kasba seat in the 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 Assembly elections.

Alam was allocated animal husbandry and fisheries department.

* Leshi Singh (JD-U), a fifth-term MLA from the Dhamdaha seat, will continue to hold the charge of the food and consumer protection ministry.

Previously, she was the Chairman of the Bihar State Women Commission. Singh had won from the Dhamdaha constituency in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 state polls.