Nitish expands Bihar cabinet

The newest entrant is Lesi Singh, an upper caste JD (U) legislator from Dhamdaha assembly constituency in Purnea and widow of bahubali Butan Singh

Amid voices of discontent growing stronger in the Janata Dal (United) or the JD (U), Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his cabinet for the first time since his party parted ways with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in June last year.

The newest colleague of Kumar is Lesi Singh, an upper caste JD (U) legislator from Dhamdaha assembly constituency in Purnea and widow of bahubali Butan Singh. She was earlier also in race for ticket from the party to contest from Purnea parliamentary constituency. Mrs. Singh is inducted in the cabinet after the resignation of the lone woman minister in the Bihar government, Renu Kushwaha. Kushwaha resigned on Monday late evening after his husband Vijay Singh joined the BJP in the presence of Narendra Modi at Purnea. There is speculation that she may be fielded as the BJP candidate from Madhepura, where she be pitted against JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav and former MP Pappu Yadav.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has said the full fledge expansion of his cabinet would take place after the election. "We did not have a woman member in our cabinet," Kumar told newsmen at Raj Bhawan in Patna, "the full fledge expansion would take place after the elections."

Meanwhile, the dissident voices in his party are growing stronger. If party sources are to be believed, several of Kumar's cabinet colleagues are in race for tickets to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In recent months, several of his closest advisors have either switched sides or questioned his choice of candidates publicly. "The party leaders must stop distributing ticket on whim. Candidates must be chosen through Parliamentary boards, but unfortunately it's being done by a single person in our party. It's a dangerous trend," Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh said on Monday in Jamui.

One of the closest aides of Kumar, Barh MLA Gyanendra Singh 'Gyanu' has also lashed out the party leadership on candidate selection. He said, "Old workers of the party are being neglected and outsiders are promoted. Old guards like us are not even consulted in the selection of candidates. It is saddening." In the last one month, more than a dozen leaders from various parties have joined the JD (U) and most of them have been promised tickets for Lok Sabha elections.