Tag : JD-U

Patna: 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 Bharatiya Janata Party asserting 'all is well'. JD-U national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who addressed a press conference in Patna, however, dismissed queries about Kumar's absence at the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 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 the chief minister said he has excused himself citing post-COVID debility. The septuagenarian, who had tested positive on July 25, interestingly, attended a function in Patna, organised on the occasion of National Handloom Day, where he shared the dais with his cabinet colleagues, including senior BJP leaders Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Tarkishore Prasad. Lalan, who was regarded as a frontrunner by some for a ministerial berth from the JD-U after R C P 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 even now," 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 R C P became a minister in 2021, he 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." Lalan also sought to make light of the exit, from the party, of R C P Singh, who ...