Janata Dal (United) eyes 2 berths in Modi's new ministry

New Delhi: The Janata Dal (United) is eyeing two ministerial position at the Centre. According to party insiders, JDU President Nitish Kumar will request for one Cabinet berth and one minister of state (MoS) position for his party in the new government during talks with BJP President Amit Shah. With 16 MPs, JDU is the third largest NDA party in the Lok Sabha, after BJP, which has 303 MPs and Shiv Sena, which has 18 MPs.
“BJP has indicated that we should be part of the next government. However, nothing on number of ministerial berths have been discussed. Considering the number of MPs, our leader would ask for one Cabinet and one MoS position,” a senior Bihar JDU leader told ET. JDU president Nitish Kumar had in July, 2017, dumped the grand alliance with RJD and Congress and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar. However, no JDU MP became a minister in the Modi ministry though BJP became part of the Bihar government.

The party has begun internal discussions on possible candidates for the Union ministry. Kumar aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias, Lalan Singh’s name is doing the rounds for the Cabinet post. He is currently a senior minister in Kumar’s cabinet but has won the Munger Lok Sabha seat. For MoS position, the name of Purnia MP Santosh Kushwaha is being discussed. Kushwaha won the Purnia seat in 2014, when JDU was not part of any alliance in Bihar and was one of the two MPs the party had in the last Lok Sabha. This time too Kushwaha has won, defeating Congress candidate Uday Singh.

There would be a meeting of JDU leaders on May 29 under Kumar’s leadership to finalise the names for the central government. Kumar will be present for the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday too. LJP, another BJP ally from Bihar, has 6 MPs and is sure to get a ministerial berth. There would also be a Cabinet reshuffle in Bihar as few ministers have become MPs.

The JDU leader said that the discussion on Bihar ministers will be taken later. “Right now, there is no discussion on the state Cabinet. Once we are done with the central government, Nitish Kumar will discuss it with alliance partners and a decision would be taken.”