Nitish Kumar tit-for-tat: One berth for BJP

Nitish Kumar tit-for-tat: One berth for BJP

Clearly miffed over the offer of a single berth in the Narendra Modi government, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has squared up with the BJP in just 72 hours. Nitish inducted eight JD-U legislators in his Cabinet expansion but no BJP MLA was included.

Rupesh ShettyUpdated: Monday, June 03, 2019, 02:36 PM IST
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Patna: Clearly miffed over the offer of a single berth in the Narendra Modi government, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has squared up with the BJP in just 72 hours.

Nitish inducted eight JD-U legislators in his Cabinet expansion but no BJP MLA was included. He has left only one seat for the saffron party on which the BJP still has to decide whom to nominate. Speaking to reporters, the Bihar chief minister said posts from the JD-U quota in the cabinet were empty and hence the leaders were inducted; he denied there was any issue with the BJP. But clearly all is not well. Though Nitish and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi – a BJP nominee -- sat next to each other as Governor Lalji Tandon administered the oath of office and secrecy, immediate-ly after the ritual was over, Nitish left to greet his ministers.

While the BJP had bent backwards while accommodating allies during seat sharing, it has been extremely fussy while giving them ministerial berths at the Centre. It is the Nitish camp’s contention that a single berth was inadequate given that other allies like the Akali Dal and Ram Vilas Paswan – despite their smaller share of NDA tally – were getting similar representation. However, on returning from the swearing-in at the Capital, Kumar reiterated that there was no trouble brewing and he turned down PM Modi’s offer as his party’s presence would have been “merely symbolic”.

The JD-U had won 16 of the 17 seats it contested in Bihar. The BJP had won all 17 they had contested. Kumar's latest move is seen as a signal to the BJP that he is gearing up for assembly elections. In the expanded cabinet, he has included two legislators from Mahadalit community, two from extreme backward castes, two from forward castes and one from Yadav and Kushwaha communities. Claiming everything was fine in the NDA, Nitish said, "When the alliance was forged, it was decided in advance which party will have how many seats and which department. JDU's vacancies were increased, that is why this has happened". NDA allies like the Shiv Sena, which has two more MPs in the Lok Sabha than the JD(U), the LJP and the Akali Dal were all given one cabinet berth each which they readily accepted.

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