Patna: The Bihar cabinet expansion will take place at 4 pm on Wednesday. Seven new ministers will be inducted into the cabinet, claimed reports. The expansion is taking place months ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Dilip Jaiswal resigned and confirmed the cabinet expansion.

"I am going to resign from the post of Revenue Minister. 'One person, one post' is the principle on which the party works. I am thankful that the central leadership has given me the responsibility of the party's state unit. Cabinet expansion is the prerogative of the Chief Minister," Jaiswal told news agency ANI.

MLAs who are frontrunners in joining Nitish Kumar's cabinet are: Sunil Kumar from Biharsharif),  Jibesh Kumar from Jale, Rahu Kumar Singh from Sahebganj, Sanjay Saraogi from Darbhanga, Vijay Kumar Mandal from Sikti, Krishan Kumar Mantoo from Amnour and Moti Lal Prasad from Riga.

Other MLAs whose names are making rounds in media for berth in the cabinet are Janak Singh and Raju Singh who represent the Rajput caste, Aruna Devi, Anil Sharma, Devkant from the Bhumihar caste, Naval Kishore Yadav from the Yadav caste and Vijay Mandal from Extremely Backward Caste (EBC), reported IANS.

At present, there are 30 ministers in the Bihar Cabinet. Out of the 15, 15 are from the BJP, 13 from the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JDU),  one from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and one Independent.

This expansion is crucial in strengthening BJP's influence in Bihar politics. HAM(S) leader Santosh Kumar Suman confirmed receiving an informal invite from cabinet minister Mangal Pandey and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary to reach Raj Bhavan at 4 pm.

"I received calls from Health Minister Mangal Pandey and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary who invited me to Raj Bhavan. I have not received any official phone call or letter from the Raj Bhavan about the cabinet expansion but I will go there at 4 p.m. today," Suman as reported by IANS.

The assembly elections in Bihar are likely to be held in October this year. The main competition will be between the BJP-led National democratic alliance and the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) alliance.