New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to be giving some tough time to his ally BJP by not just demanding equal representation in the state cabinet, the expansion of which has been on hold for over two months now, but by also hard bargaining for Union ministry berths.
A BJP leader, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint the JD(U) has demanded two cabinet berths and two minister of state (MoS) positions.
After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish had spurned the BJP’s offer of “symbolic representation” in the Union cabinet. The Bihar CM had wanted proportional representation in the cabinet as JD(U) has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
But when it was denied, an angry Nitish returned to Patna and expanded his cabinet, filling up the vacant JD(U) slots on his own.
“But he can’t repeat it now because he is a junior partner,” said a second BJP leader, stressing that it is Union Home Minister Amit shah who will decide the state cabinet expansion and its date.
Also read: BJP’s social engineering on display as Nitish takes oath as Bihar CM with new NDA colleagues
The endless wait for cabinet expansion
When the new NDA government in Bihar took oath on 16 November last year, Nitish had said the cabinet expansion will happen soon. In the House of 243, the cabinet can have 36 ministers. Currently, it has 15 ministers, including the CM.
In December, Nitish declared that the expansion was not taking place because the BJP had not finalised the list of ministers. In January, Nitish had twice said the expansion will be held soon.
Bihar BJP leaders like state party president Sanjay Jaiswal also said the expansion will take place at the earliest.
“We will have names that meet the caste and geographical requirements,” he told The Print Wednesday, without specifying a date.
JD(U) leaders, meanwhile, are fuming.
“It has never happened in the past. Cabinet expansion takes place within a month (of swearing-in). It (the delay) is sending the wrong message to the people and administration,” said a JD(U) MLA.
Current Bihar ministers, who have been given charges of multiple portfolios, said it is difficult to work as one does not know which portfolio will remain and which one will go away after the expansion.
“We have lost at least 20-25 seats due to the LJP, so it should be compensated through the portfolio allocation. We are not demanding more berths, but equal partnership like we did with regard to Lok Sabha ticket distribution, and our honourable representation in the Union cabinet,” a JD(U) minister told ThePrint.
During the last three months, Bihar BJP leaders have attributed the delay to the failure of top BJP leaders — such as Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, B.L. Santosh, Bhupender Yadav, among others — not being able to meet.
Last week, a meeting took place in Delhi, but without Shah.
“Everything was cleared, the names of BJP ministers and the departments they will be allotted. It just needs to be approved by Amit Shah,” said the first BJP leader, who attended the meeting.
The delay and its impact
The inordinate delay in the cabinet expansion has led to speculation, heartburn and confusion in the NDA fold.
Questions have been raised by the opposition on the stability of the government in Bihar, which has a thin majority despite JD(U) managing to get the support of three non-NDA MLAs — from LJP, BSP and one Independent.
In the beginning, the delay was attributed to the tug of war between the BJP and the JD(U) over numbers and portfolios. It was reported that the BJP was not getting portfolios like education and water resources. It was also speculated that Nitish had objections to two names in the BJP’s list of ministers — the MLAs who switched sides from JD(U).
A third senior BJP leader, however, dismissed these speculations, saying these issues didn’t come up for discussions at the meeting last week.
Nitish’s ‘Mission 65’
The clash between the allies is not just limited to having a larger share in the state cabinet.
The BJP is also equally suspicious of Nitish’s recent moves of trying to increase his strength in the assembly through backdoor channels, said party sources.
In Patna, there are speculations that Nitish is aiming for ‘Mission 65’ — an effort to increase MLAs from the current 43 to 65 — and JD(U) sources said party leaders are negotiating with Congress and AIMIM MLAs to make them switch sides.
A few weeks ago, former Congress MLA Bharat Singh said 11 party MLAs are ready to defect to the JD(U).
Soon after, BSP’s lone Muslim MLA Jama Khan joined the JD(U). After Khan, Independent MLA Sumit Singh also switched sides. Last week, Chirag Paswan-led LJP’s lone MLA Raj Kumar Singh met Nitish, triggering speculations of him switching sides.
Last week, all five MLAs of AIMIM met Nitish, claiming that the meeting was to discuss the development of Seemanchal area from where all the five legislators of Asaduddin Owaisi’s party had won.
The JD(U) had performed well in the Seemanchal region last election, but this time it lost several seats in the Muslim-dominated areas.
RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha’s recent meeting with Nitish is also seen as the latter’s move to add to his political strength.
“The real motive of this strategy will come out in the open if Shahnawaz Hussain is inducted into the cabinet. It will send several messages. It will tell whether the BJP focus is on the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal area, or if it wants to dent Nitish’s votebank there or if it wants to target districts adjoining the Seemanchal region that share the border with West Bengal, where 25-30 seats are critical for the party’s win in Bengal,” said a JD(U) leader, who didn’t want to be named.
Also read: Nitish and Yediyurappa — CMs waiting endlessly for Modi-Shah nod on cabinet expansion
Whither Bihar in Nitish’s 4th term?
It’s so sad, when Bihar needed full and dedicated attention to its development following such a cut-throat and divisive election, a complacent Nitish is calculating the narrow benefit and loss of cabinet formation/expansion.
Bihar will have to give up any hope of resurgence in its energy and initiative during Nitish’s 4th term. In the meantime, Lalu’s coalition will gather enough strength to take over in 2025, if not before.
The BJP on its own doesn’t seem to be in a position to come to power to give Bihar a new direction — much in the same way as Yogi is doing in U.P.
So, we, the Bihari diaspora, must reach out to Nitish, his corrupt and dead self-profiteering and promoting bureaucrats and hammer at them that we are watching.
We must do our bit.
Seats. Deciet. Number of positions in Union Cabinet. Switching sides for political gains. Whichever party. Whichever alliance.
Where does the Nation, the Citizen or the Country come in their list of priority? If at all? Sickening!!