Patna/IBNS/UNI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday inducted 21 new ministers including three women in his cabinet, carrying out the much-awaited expansion of the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state.

Bihar Governor R. Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath office to the 21 ministers - 12 from BJP and 9 from JD(U) - in a function at the Raj Bhavan.

The oath was administered in the presence of Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Devesh Chandra Thakur, Bihar Assembly Speaker Nand Kishor Yadav, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, ministers in Nitish's cabinet and other dignitaries.

After government formation on January 28, this is the first cabinet expansion.

Those inducted into the cabinet from the BJP quota are Renu Devi, Mangal Pandey (MLC), Niraj Kumar Singh Bablu, Nitish Mishra, Nitin Navin, Dilip Jayaswal (MLC), Janak Ram (MLC), Hari Sahni (MLC), Krishn Nandan Paswan, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Surendra Mehta and Santosh Kumar Singh (MLC).

Ashok Choudhary (MLC), Lesi Singh, Madan Sahni, Maheshwar Hajari, Shila Mandal, Sunil Kumar, Jayant Raj and Jama Khan, and Ratnesh Sada, took oath from the JD(U).

The major constituent alliances BJP and JD(U) took 46 days to finalise the names for the cabinet expansion.

At the time of government formation, eight ministers along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had taken oath.

The cabinet strength is now up to 30 including 15 from BJP, 13 from JDU, one from Hindustani Awam Morcha, and an independent.