India, Nov. 21 -- Nitish Kumar may have secured a strong mandate in last week's Bihar election, but the new cabinet tells a more complicated story about who really holds the reins.

The Chief Minister, now in his tenth term, has ceded the powerful Home Ministry, a post he held almost continuously since 2005, to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Samrat Choudhary, who returns as Deputy CM.

The portfolio distribution announced Friday night makes the BJP's upper hand hard to miss.

BJP leaders also secured the portfolios of Road and Housing, SC/ST Welfare, Tourism, IT and Sports, Fisheries and Animal Resources, and Environment and Climate Change.

Smaller allies, too, found space in the cabinet with allocations like Sugarcane Industry, Pub...