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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday dropped 10 of his ministers inducting 19 new ones in their place to improve the performance of his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. It is his first reshuffle during his 28 month long ministry since November 2005.

Eight among the ten dropped ministers belonged to JD(U). Those ministers include Rural Development Minister Vaidyanath Mahto, Building Construction and Housing Minister Monajir Hasan, Youth, Art and Culture Minister Janardan Sigrawal, Welfare Minister Rameshwar Paswan, Minister of State for Food, Supply and Commerce Suchitra Devi, Minister of State for Information and Public Relations Arjun Rai, Minister of State for Transport Ajit Kumar, Minister of State for Minority Welfare Manjar Alam and Minor Water Resources Minister Vishwa Mohan Kumar.

While the other two were Health Minister Chandra Mohan Rai and Arts and Culture Minister Janardan Singh Sirgriwal from BJP.

Governor R.S. Gavai administered the oath of office to the 17 new cabinet ministers and two ministers of state at Raj Bhawan in Patna.

Of the 17 cabinet ministers sworn-in, Renu Devi, Giriraj Singh, Bhola Prasad Singh, Ramnarayan Mandal and Awadhesh Narain Singh are from BJP, while Nagmani, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Chedi Paswan, Dinesh Prasad, Damodar Rawat, Ramanandan Singh, Harinarayan Singh, Shahid Ali Khan, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Rampravesh Rai and Hari Prasad Sao from JD(U).

Jamshed Ashraf of JD(U) and Vyasdeo Prasad of BJP took oath as ministers of state.

The strength of the council of ministers has now gone up from 27 to 36.

Tags: Bihar, BJP, CM, JDU, NDA, Nitish Kumar

Chief Minister of Mehgalaya D D Lapang resigned on Wednesday as he was unable to get a majority in the assembly.

The decision is taken in the meeting of Congress Legislature Party on Wednesday morning.

“Congress could not get the requisite support, so the Congress Legislature Party decided I should resign,” Lapang told.

Rival Nationalist Congress Party leader P A Sangma said the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance would meet at noon and stake claim to form the new government.

Speaking about the MPA, Lapang said that Congress wil be soon back as it is a bundle of contradictions and will last three months.

Congress has emerged a single largest party to form the government after the elections. And the governor’s decision to invite the party was attacked by the rival alliance which moved the Supreme Court against it. However, the apex court, refused to interfere at this stage.

The speaker’s election was postponed to Monday at the instance of the Meghalaya United Alliance, which was apparently unsure of its victory. The MPA criticizing the decision alleged that the Congress had approached the UDP and other constituents of the alliance led by it for support.

Besides 14 NCP MLAs, MPA comprises 11 from United Democratic Party, two from Hill State People’s Democratic Party, one each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement, besides two Independents.

Tags: CM, Congress, India, Lapang, Meghalaya, Politics