Patna,(BiharTimes): It would be the test of the political skill of the new Bihar chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, who along with 17 ministers, took oath of secrecy on May 20 evening.

All the ministers of the Nitish Kumar cabinet have been included in this cabinet. Besides, two Independents––Binay Bihari and Dular Chand Goswami––also took oath oath as ministers. The third Independent MLA, who supported the Nitish government last year, has not been inducted because he openly campaigned for the BJP candidate in the recently held Lok Sabha election. The membership of the fourth Independent has been set aside by the Patna high court a few weeks ago.
Political observers are of the view that Manjhi will have to prove himself in the next 16 months as the Assembly election is due in October 2015. The people of the state will judge his performance on par with that of his predecessor. If he does not come up to the expectation the Janata Dal (United) may have to pay the price in the election. The party is in a very poor shape now and needs a lot of work to regain the lost ground.

Nitish had, especially in the first term, earned a lot of goodwill of the people of the state. But he lost it in the last one year after his split with the BJP. With this he somewhat lost control on the government too.

It is to be seen how Manjhi brings back to track the state government. Whether he would be able to check the unbridled bureaucracy or not is a big challenge for the new CM.

Besides, there are hordes of senior and influential leaders of dominant castes, who needs to be handled carefully. Dissension has already been brewing up in the party and it would be no easy task for Manjhi to overcome this problem.

Unlike Nitish, who was an elected chief minister, Manjhi is an appointed CM. In fact it was none else but Nitish Kumar who nominated him.

True, Nitish Kumar played his master stroke by making a mahadalit a chief minister, but then he had three other mahadalits too with him. They are speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary as well as ministers Shyam Rajak and Ramai Ram. But Manjhi was not just chosen because he was a Musahar, but because he is more pliable and low profile than the other three, whom Nitish can not trust as much. He is not as appealing a leader as other Dalit faces in Janata Dal (United).

Nitish wants to give the message that he is promoting the mahadalit voters. But what will happen if before the next Assembly election he once again projects himself as the chief ministerial candidate. In that case will he be assured of the support of all the mahadalits?

As Nitish does not want to take risk he did not appoint any powerful leader of his party as the chief minister. But what will be the response of senior ministers like Narendra Singh, Bijendra Yadav, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Ramai Ram etc is to be seen in the months to come.