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Union government at the Centre. The JD(U), which rules Bijhar in alli- leader and Nitish Kumar’s close
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, ance with the BJP and won 16 of the 40 aide, RCP Singh was to become
who heads the JD(U) and was present seats in the state, wanted a bigger share the lone cabinet minister from
for the oath-taking ceremony on the in the council of ministers and had the party. A closed-door meeting
forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, conveyed its demand to the BJP, which in New Delhi consisting of the
said his party will not be part of the NDA won 17 seats. It was not part of the Modi chief minister and top leaders of
government as the Bharatiya Janata government in the last tenure and had the JDU decided to not attend the
Party’s (BJP) offer of participation was walked out of the Congress –Rashtriya swearing-in ceremony. Earlier,
“symbolic representation.” “They said Janata Dal alliance in Bihar in 2017 to Kumar had met BJP president
that they want to give one cabinet rank be part of the NDA. Little doubt that Amit Shah on JD-U’s expecta-
to every ally. Then we said that we will peeved at being allocated only one cabi- tions of being invited to be a part
discuss it with the party members and net berth, Bihar chief minister Nitish of the new government.
then only we can say anything over this Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has Rajya Sabha MP RCP Singh
symbolic representation.” “I spoke to decided to opt out of the Narendra Modi had also received a cabinet call
my party leaders and people and they government. Nitish Kumar reiterated earlier in the day. Singh is a for-
were not agreeing to one berth and the that “The offer made by the BJP was not mer Uttar Pradesh cadre Indian
symbolic representation. And this we acceptable to us. But we are firmly with Administrative Service (IAS) of-
communicated to them (BJP). They also the National Democratic Alliance. But ficer and belongs to the Nalanda
called up in the morning and then we we will not join the government.” Ear- district of Bihar. He belongs to
again conveyed our decision.” lier, sources had said that JD-U’s senior the same caste as Bihar chief
minister Nitish Kumar and is
considered close to him. Singh
has been associated with Nitish
Kumar since his stint in the Atal
Bihari Vajpayee government and
was also Kumar’s principal secre-
tary in the state government till
he joined politics.
The JD-U’s move to identify
its representatives in the cabinet
comes against the backdrop of
the party’s strong performance
in the elections to the 17th Lok
Sabha, in which it won 16 of the 17
seats that it contested from Bihar.
The BJP and the Lok Janshakti
Party (LJP) won all 17 seats and six
seats, respectively, that they con-
tested, giving the NDA 39 of the
40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
As Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and his cabinet were sworn
in on Thursday by President Ram
Nath Kovind, 37 ministers - in-
cluding several high-profile
LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Council of Ministers, after the Swearing-in Ceremony

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