With Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar set to take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Friday, speculations are rife over who will make it to the new cabinet.
After storming to an electric victory against the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party, the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combined, also known as the Grand Alliance or the Mahaghatbandhan, are expected to share seats in the cabinet based on their respective performance.
With Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) having emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar elections by winning 80 of the 178 seats swooped up by the Grand Alliance, the party is likely to get a strong presence in the Bihar cabinet.
In fact, Lalu Yadav's sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav, who debuted to victory in the Bihar elections, are expected to get ministerial berths. Some reports suggested that one of them, or even Lalu Yadav's daughter Misa Bharati Devi, may be chosen as Bihar's deputy Chief Minister. Misa Bharati will have to become a member of the state legislative council to earn the post.
Other reports said RJD's Abdul Bari Siddiqui was also being considered for the Deputy CM post.
Earlier reports had suggested that the Grand Alliance will divide cabinet seats on the basis of '1 minister for five MLAs' formula. This would give RJD 16 ministers, the JD(U) 15 and the Congress only five.
Yadav has already prepared a list of 16 to 17 ministerial hopefuls from his party, according to Dainik Bhaskar.
According to the report, the Yadav community is likely to get a significant number of posts in Nitish Kumar's cabinet.
The RJD has reportedly asked for ministries such as finance, agriculture, and road construction.
The Congress, on the other hand, is eyeing the post of the Assembly Speaker. Congress leader Sadanand Singh may be given the post.
The JD(U) is likely to keep the home department along with education.
On Thursday, a day ahead of the Bihar government's swearing-in, several Hindi-language newspapers shared lists of names of winning candidates of each party who are expected to be given ministerial berths.
Here are a few names of Bihar MLAs who may take oath as ministers on Friday (compiled from Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar) --
RJD - Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Abdul Gafoor, Ram Chandra Purvey, Alok Mehta, Bhola Yadav, Surendra Yadav, Chandrika Rai, Vijay Prakash, Mundrika Yadav, Ramanand Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Bhai Virendra, Samta Devi, Maheshwar Prasad Yadav.
JD (U) - Vijay Kumar Chaudhury, Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Yadav, Shyam Rajak, Lallan Singh, Lesi Singh, Shrawan Kumar, Ranveer Nandan, Vijay Mishra, Jai Kumar Singh, Mewalal Chaudhary.
Congress - Sadanand Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Vijay Shankar Dubey, Amita Bhushan, Abdul Mastan, Ashok Kumar.
