Amid the buzz of a Cabinet reshuffle in the Narendra Modi Government, the Janata Dal(U), which is part of the NDA at Centre and in the Bihar Government, on Saturday expected a “respectable” share in the Union Council of Ministers.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) had opted out of a Cabinet berth when the NDA retained power in 2019.
“We are a part of the NDA... All constituents deserve a respectable share (in the Modi Government,” JD(U) chief RCP Singh told the media in Patna on Saturday.
After the exit of 18 MP-strong Shiv Sena, JD(U) has become the largest of BJP’s allies in Parliament — 5 in the the Rajya Sabha, and 16 in the Lok Sabha.
Asked whether the JD(U) would “demand” a respectable share for itself in the expected expansion of the Union Cabinet, Singh, the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, quipped “where is the question of demanding? It is a matter of understanding. It has to be natural”.
Singh succeeded Kumar as the national president of the party after the Chief Minister relinquished the top party post.
Notably, after the NDA returned to power with a thumping majority in 2019, speculations were rife that the party would join the new government. However, Kumar put his foot down, unhappy over the BJPs assertion that since it had secured a majority on its own, coalition partners would have to be content with “token” representation of one member each.
But now with BJP on a shaky ground, having suffered defeat in the high-stakes West Bengal Assembly polls recently, the JD(U) obviously sees an opportunity to extract its pound of flesh, JD(U) is one of the few allies left with the BJP after one of its oldest partner, Shiromani Akali Dal, pulled out in protest against the farm Bills.
The JD(U) has been sore over the ambivalence shown by the BJP towards the LJPs president Chirag Paswan, whose politics of brinkmanship badly damaged the chief ministers party in the Bihar Assembly polls last year. It was widely speculated that Chirag enjoyed the tacit approval of the BJP, which ended up with a bigger tally than the JD(U) but chose to stick with Kumar as Chief Minister citing promises to the effect having been made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.