Chief minister Nitish Kumar expanded his cabinet to its full strength on Wednesday by giving all seven remaining ministerial berths to the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections later this year, prompting the saffron party to tom-tom its dominance in Bihar politics and causing rumblings in the JDU that resented “arm-twisting” by the bigger partner.

Sanjay Saraogi, Sunil Kumar, Jibesh Kumar, Raju Singh, Motilal Prasad, Krishna Kumar Mantu and Vijay Kumar Mandal were the seven ministers administered oath of office by governor Arif Mohammed Khan at the Raj Bhavan.

The BJP now has 21 cabinet ministers while the JDU has 13, including Nitish. NDA ally Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) has one minister, while an Independent, Sumit Kumar Singh, is also a member of the cabinet.

The BJP has 80 MLAs in Bihar, the JDU 45, HAMS 4, and 2 Independents.

The expansion came on the heels of Nitish meeting BJP national president and Union health minister J.P. Nadda on Tuesday. The extent to which the power scales had tilted in the BJP’s favour was evident in the fact that Nitish made the rare gesture of travelling to the guest house where Nadda had put up. Till last year, Nadda used to go to the chief minister’s residence to meet Nitish.

While senior saffron party leaders attributed the “BJP-only cabinet expansion” to their numerical strength in the Assembly, JDU MLAs and MLCs who were harbouring hope of becoming ministers were left unhappy, although none expressed any grievance in public.

“We cannot deny that our party is weak at present and is in trouble. But the entire cabinet expansion seems to be orchestrated by the BJP by resorting to arm-twisting. It could have shown magnanimity in this situation. Anyway, situations change,” a senior JDU MLA told The Telegraph.

Another cabinet hopeful of the JDU questioned the need for expansion by pointing out that the Bihar legislature’s month-long session would start from February 28 andthe model code of conduct for the Assembly polls would come into force sometime around September.

“One can only wonder how much time the new ministers would get to work and what important work they would get done. This is a case of the BJP humiliating us,” the JDU MLA said.

With speculation swirling about Nitish’s health and an obvious leadership vacuum, the JNU is on the back foot. As the elections approach, the JDU is also grappling withan urgent need to keep its flock together.

However, two other JDU leaders said the all-BJP cabinet expansion could be a part of a “deal” to have Nitish as the chief ministerial face and ensure an equal distribution of seats in the Assembly elections in October-November.

The BJP has tried to balance caste and regional equations in its picks for cabinet berths. Five of them hail from the Other Backward Castes (OBC) and the Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) while two are from the general category.

Two ministers are from the Kurmi-Kushwaha castes, which have traditionally supported Nitish en bloc but shown signs of gravitating towards the Opposition INDIA bloc during the Lok Sabha elections last year.

Two of the new ministers are from the Vaishya (Bania and Teli) community, which has been among the coresupporters of the BJP but showed resentment over being “neglected” during the general election.

Six of the seven newly inducted ministers are from different parts of the densely populated north Bihar with representation being given to the Mithila, Seemanchal, Tirhut and Saran-Siwan regions.