Summary:
Patna, Aug 7 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) on Sunday made it clear that it will not join the Union council of ministers again, but rebuffed speculations of a rift with ally BJP asserting “all is well”.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who addressed a press conference here, however, dismissed queries about Kumar’s absence at the NITI Aayog meeting, with the terse remark “you should ask the chief minister”.
While there has been no official word on the reason behind Kumar’s absence, sources close to him said he has excused himself citing post-COVID debility.
The septuagenarian, who had tested positive on July 25, interestingly, attended a couple of functions here during the day.
At one of these, organized on the occasion of national handloom day, he even shared the dais with his cabinet colleagues from the BJP -- industries minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad.
Lalan, seen as a frontrunner by some for a ministerial berth from the JD(U) after RCP Singh’s resignation, clarified that the party wasn’t willing to have any representative in the Union Council of ministers.
“We had decided in 2019, after the Lok Sabha polls, not to join the government at the Centre.
We stick to that stand,” he said.
“The decision not to join the Union government was taken by our leader Nitish Kumar who was then also the party’s national president,” said Lalan.
When pointed out that RCP became a minister in 2021, Lalan shot back, “You should ask him (RCP) who was the national president at that time.
He did not take anybody in the loop while arriving at the decision”.
The JD(U) leader also sought to make light of the exit from the party of RCP Singh, who resigned from the Union cabinet recently after being denied another Rajya Sabha term.
“He may have left the party only yesterday.
But for long his body was in the party and soul elsewhere,” Lalan said, without elaborating.
The JD(U) national president, however, advised RCP, his predecessor, to “apply himself to wherever his heart mind and soul lie, without engaging in diatribe against Nitish Kumar".
“Nitish Kumar is the maalik (lord) of the JD(U).
People like RCP or I get elected as national president because of his benediction.