Bihar: Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) not to join Narendra Modi cabinet, says Rajiv Ranjan Singh | Patna News
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PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) on Sunday said it would not join the PM Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet during its next expansion.
Addressing a press conference, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh categorically said that his party had decided not to join the Union cabinet during its forthcoming expansion. “We stick to our party’s stand of 2019 when, after the Lok Sabha polls, we had decided not to join the Union government,” Lalan said.
In May 2019, the then JD(U) president Nitish had refused to join the Modi cabinet after the BJP refused his demand of “proportionate representation” in the cabinet, instead of a “symbolic representation” by indicting only one minister from each ally of NDA.
Having 16 members of his party in the Lok Sabha from Bihar after the 2019 general elections, Nitish then reportedly wanted four cabinet berths in the Modi cabinet. The ally BJP, which had won 17 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar in the same election, had inducted altogether five ministers, four of them from upper castes, from the state.
Insiders in the NDA said the JD(U) decided not to join the Modi cabinet during the next expansion only after its demand for two ministerial berths was rejected by the BJP.
Currently the JD(U), which is the biggest ally of BJP at the Centre, has no representation in the Union cabinet after the resignation of its lone minister RCP Singh, who had to quit the cabinet berth on July 6 after the party refused to send him to the Rajya Sabha for third consecutive term. Incidentally, RCP quit the JD(U) on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, senior JD(U) leader and Bihar’s education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary told reporters that his party was not going to join the Modi cabinet. “The JD-U needed the desired respect from the BJP, but it did not happen. Hence, we have decided not to join the Modi government,” Choudhary said, giving enough hint that the BJP has refused its demand of at least two berths during the next expansion.
Choudhary, however, claimed that the JD(U)’s decision would not affect its alliance with the BJP in Bihar where both the allies are part of the Nitish government.
Addressing a press conference, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh categorically said that his party had decided not to join the Union cabinet during its forthcoming expansion. “We stick to our party’s stand of 2019 when, after the Lok Sabha polls, we had decided not to join the Union government,” Lalan said.
In May 2019, the then JD(U) president Nitish had refused to join the Modi cabinet after the BJP refused his demand of “proportionate representation” in the cabinet, instead of a “symbolic representation” by indicting only one minister from each ally of NDA.
Having 16 members of his party in the Lok Sabha from Bihar after the 2019 general elections, Nitish then reportedly wanted four cabinet berths in the Modi cabinet. The ally BJP, which had won 17 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar in the same election, had inducted altogether five ministers, four of them from upper castes, from the state.
Insiders in the NDA said the JD(U) decided not to join the Modi cabinet during the next expansion only after its demand for two ministerial berths was rejected by the BJP.
Currently the JD(U), which is the biggest ally of BJP at the Centre, has no representation in the Union cabinet after the resignation of its lone minister RCP Singh, who had to quit the cabinet berth on July 6 after the party refused to send him to the Rajya Sabha for third consecutive term. Incidentally, RCP quit the JD(U) on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, senior JD(U) leader and Bihar’s education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary told reporters that his party was not going to join the Modi cabinet. “The JD-U needed the desired respect from the BJP, but it did not happen. Hence, we have decided not to join the Modi government,” Choudhary said, giving enough hint that the BJP has refused its demand of at least two berths during the next expansion.
Choudhary, however, claimed that the JD(U)’s decision would not affect its alliance with the BJP in Bihar where both the allies are part of the Nitish government.
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