Ever since the cabinet rejig happened on 3 September, Nitish Kumar’s party, JD(U)’s non-entry into the Modi cabinet has remained a big talking point. The Bihar CM has played it down saying that it was never discussed. However, sources said that the PM spoke to Nitish at least twice ahead of the reshuffle.
JD(U) was all set to join Modi’s new team with one cabinet and one MoS directly. PM Modi was keen that both the new alliance partners, JD(U) and AIADMK, come on board together. When the AIADMK failed to provide a list of ministerial inclusions by 5 am on 2nd September, it was decided that the immediate reshuffle should be kept an internal affair of the party.
“It was discussed that let’s get JD(U) on board now and AIADMK can join later. But the BJP president (Amit Shah) was of the view that both the new partners should join simultaneously”, a senior BJP leader told Newsd.
There are chances that both the parties will fill the remaining six ministerial slots shortly. ” It could be as early as October. All these six slots could go to allies”, the source added.
Four ministers were promoted to the cabinet rank, while nine new ministers took oath at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 3rd September following the cabinet reshuffling.
