Renu Devi’s Significance as Bihar’s Next Deputy CM

Following Uttar Pradesh’s model of two deputy Chief Ministers, the Nitish Kumar led government in Bihar has decided to give Renu Devi one of its Deputy CM position along with Tarkishore Prasad.

Renu Devi, who belongs to the Nonia caste (Teli), is part of a larger Vaishya Community from Extremely Backward caste category and will work under Nitish Kumar who swore in as the Bihar Chief Minister for the fourth straight term.

Renu Devi is a five-time MLA from Bettiah, who defeated Congress’ Madan Mohan Tiwari by a margin of 18,079 votes in the recent assembly polls. She had earlier won from Bettiah in 2000, twice in 2005, and 2010, but lost in 2015.

Devi, who has worked with Nitish Kumar during his second term as the Bihar CM, was unanimously elected as Deputy leader of BJP’s Legislature party on Sunday.

The 62-year old will represent the western Northern districts of Champaran region — a BJP stronghold- where she is known to have worked well with BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal and RSS leader Tarkishore Prasad, who also took the oath as the next deputy CM on Monday.

The BJP leader’s induction into the Bihar cabinet is not misaligned for BJP. In these Assembly Polls BJP won 74 seats while its ally JD(U) failed to perform in these elections and got only 43 seats. In terms of vote percentages, their political rival Rashtriya Janata Dal, rose as the single largest party in the state and won 75 seats got a total vote share of 23.1 percent. BJP meanwhile got 19.5