Union Cabinet rejig: Nitish Kumar's JD(U) takes major u-turn; to accept PM's decision on berth allocation

"Jo hua so hua (what happened has happened)" Nitish Kumar said, taking a U-turn from his 2019 statement, reported NDTV.

The Bihar chief minister said the issue is closed and his party will accept whatever the Prime Minister decides, the report informed, adding that Kumar has said  senior party leader RCP Singh is authorised to finalise everything related to joining the Union Cabinet with BJP

Earlier, when JD (U) leader RCP Singh's presence in Delhi sparked speculations that the party could join the cabinet this time, NDTV reported citing sources that Singh is in Delhi for discussions and not for joining as a Cabinet minister.

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal had been pitching for four Cabinet berths in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, sticking to their earlier stance that  ministries should be given according to the Lok Sabha seats won, said media reports.

"The BJP has 17 MPs, according to which they should have five ministers. We have 16 MPs, so four ministers should be made," a party source had earlier said, reported NDTV.

However, BJP had rejected the idea of proportional representation, underlining that the allies were given only symbolic representation with one ministerial berth each, as it had registered landslide victory in 2019 elections on its own.

Nitish Kumar had declined to accept the argument, saying that BJP's logic did not hold good in cases where the allies had significant contribution and questioned how his party JD(U) could be given the same number of ministries as Akali Dal or Lok Jan Shakti party.

To prove its point, JD(U) did not join the Union Cabinet as BJP refused to make amendments to its alliance policy.