PATNA, May 7 -- Bihar's cabinet expansion under chief minister Samrat Choudhary on Thursday marked a carefully calibrated exercise in caste balancing, generational transition and coalition management, with the ruling NDA seeking to project a socially broad-based leadership.

The expanded council of ministers includes seven first-time ministers - four from the BJP and three from the JD(U) - while also bringing in sons of three former chief ministers and a former Union minister, underscoring the continuing influence of political legacies in Bihar.

The BJP inducted Mithilesh Tiwari, Nand Kishore Ram, Shailendra Kumar and Ramchandra Prasad as first-time ministers, while the JD(U) brought in Nishant Kumar, Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal and...