Two days after Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Modi attended an Iftaar party hosted by Lok Janshakti Party chief and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Giriraj Singh, the latter’s cabinet colleague at the Centre, decided to add fuel to fire and trolled his own party’s alliance partners, questioning them over the lack of such enthusiasm during the Navratras. Curiously, the photographs of the gathering also included Sushil Modi.
The Union Minister for Animal Husbandry, tagging photographs from the Iftaar party, wrote on Twitter: “This photo would have been more beautiful, had the same enthusiasm been shown during Navratras. Why do we lag behind on our religion, and stay ahead at show off?”
The outburst could come as a flashpoint in the already strained relations between the alliance partners in Bihar. On Tuesday, Nitish Kumar extended his state cabinet, inducting 8 new ministers from his own party, fuelling rumours that he was unhappy with BJP over being offered only one ministerial berth in the Union cabinet.
The chief minister rejected such rumours, saying that it was the BJP with did not want to be part of the state cabinet. Clarifying further, he added that his party leaders were inducted in the cabinet as there were vacancies in the JD(U) quota and that there was no issue with BJP
कितनी खूबसूरत तस्वीर होती जब इतनी ही चाहत से नवरात्रि पे फलाहार का आयोजन करते और सुंदर सुदंर फ़ोटो आते??…अपने कर्म धर्म मे हम पिछड़ क्यों जाते और दिखावा में आगे रहते है??? pic.twitter.com/dy7s1UgBgy
— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) June 4, 2019
His NDA colleague Paswan also maintained that everything was fine within the alliance and Kumar was their leader in Bihar. “All is well in NDA. Nitish Kumar is our leader. Too many conclusions should not be drawn. Kumar has also said that he was, is and will remain with NDA. Moreover, I am there to act as a cementing force,” he was quoted as saying.
The NDA won 39 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the recently concluded general elections. While JD(U) won 16 of the 17 seats it contested, BJP won 17 and LJP 6. With BJP alone winning 303 seats, crossing the majority mark of 272, it has formed the government with NDA partners, taking the total number of seats to 352 at the Centre.
