Angry with BJP, Nitish inducts 8 JD(U) ministers

Upset over ‘shabby treatment’ meted out by the BJP while proposing the JD (U) to join the Union Cabinet, the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday expanded his Cabinet and inducted eight new ministers. However, all these eight ministers were from the JD (U).

Nitish is miffed with the BJP ever since JD (U) was offered one ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi Government last week. In a tit for tat, Nitish on Sunday offered one berth to BJP too. But no minister from the BJP took oath as the saffron party said the minister from BJP quota would be sworn in later.

The eight ministers who joined Nitish team include Sanjay Jha, whom Nitish wanted to be the JD (U) nominee from Darbhanga Lok Sabha constituency but could not do so as BJP fielded its own candidate from Darbhanga.

Two days back, Nitish made Jha an MLC, and on Sunday made him Bihar’s Water Resources Minister. The other seven who were made ministers include Ashok Choudhary (former Bihar Cong chief), Shyam Razak, Narendra Yadav, Neeraj Kumar, Ram Sevak Singh, Laxmeshwar Rai and Bima Bharti.

Though Nitish later said “there was no anger” and the expansion has taken place after “due consultation with the BJP”, sources who are in the know of things aver “this was Nitish’s way to send a terse message to the top BJP leadership for ill-treating allies.”

Nitish’s angst with the BJP could be gauged from the fact that soon after his return from New Delhi he said that his party won’t join Narendra Modi Government even in future. “They offered JD (U) one ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet as ‘symbolic representation’. However, we insisted on ‘proportional representation’ as the JD (U) had won 16 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats it contested,” Nitish said earlier.

The ruling party leaders in Bihar insisted that the BJP should differentiate between a one MP-party like RPI and 16-MP party JD (U).