Amid Opposition taunts and growing speculation about Janata Dal (United)’s dissatisfaction with the “inconsequential” portfolios that former national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh and Ramnath Thakur have got in the Union Council of Ministers, party leaders dismissed such conjectures.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “I will fulfil with complete devotion whatever responsibility I have got.” Mr. Singh is Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Panchayati Raj, while Mr. Thakur is Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
The INDIA bloc, which currently has 237 members under its alliance, is 35 seats short of a simple majority in Parliament and has pinned their hopes on realignment of NDA partners, especially Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP). In fact, a section of INDIA coalition leaders at their meeting held on June 5 in the national capital wanted the joint resolution that the group issued at the end of the meeting to specify that the bloc’s doors will remain open for JD(U) and TDP, though the suggestion was rejected.
So far, neither the JD(U) nor the TDP has betrayed any signs of discord with the BJP. JD(U) insiders, in fact, point to various signals by the Bihar Chief Minister showing a near complete “surrender”. “Mr. Kumar nearly touched Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s feet during the NDA meet. This is in sharp contrast to his past conduct when he had publicly snubbed the Prime Minister,” a top JD(U) leader said. Party insiders claim that no change is expected in the coalition equation till Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for next year in November.
Bitter experience with INDIA bloc
JD(U) secretary general and spokesperson K.C. Tyagi echoed Mr. Singh’s remarks. Speaking to The Hindu, he said: “We have had a bitter and bad experience in the INDIA bloc. There is no question of harming or trying to weaken the NDA. We are in NDA and shall remain here.” Going a step further, he also underlined that the JD(U) will support BJP’s candidate for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker. “It is a parliamentary tradition that the Speaker’s post goes to the party that is numerically strongest. There will be no change this time around too,” Mr. Tyagi added.
As the Opposition makes claims that the JD(U) has capitulated in front of the BJP, there are speculations within the party that Mr. Kumar has settled for rather “inconsequential” portfolios to ensure that there is no alternate power centre in Delhi. “In 2019, JD(U) was similarly offered one cabinet berth. At that time, the Chief Minister had rejected it saying he will not settle for symbolic presence,” a senior JD(U) leader pointed out. The party had then argued that it should have “proportional representation”. Against five BJP ministers from Bihar, the party wanted at least four berths in the cabinet.
Mr. Tyagi dismissed these speculations. “Mr. Nitish Kumar and Mr. Lalan Singh are comrades with a relationship spanning 40 years. Such speculations are purely imaginative,” he said.
