President Ram Nath Kovind (left) administers oath to RK Singh (right), a former Union home secretary, as minister of state during the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)
Patna, Sept. 3: The Union ministry expansion has left the RJD ecstatic and the NDA government in Bihar, particularly the JDU, sulking.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said: 'BJP ne Nitish ko thenga dikhaya (BJP neglected Nitish). Nitish is now like a monkey that falls off the tree and is not accepted. It was not the question of giving the JDU one or two Union ministers. The BJP realised that Nitish was trying to break the Congress in order to be more independent. They know he can be Paltoo Ram and change sides.'
His son, Tejashwi Yadav, tweeted: 'We just pray & wish for his (Nitish) political well-being in the NDA. Hope he finds better place next time, My sincere wishes & Sympathy'. It was a day to rejoice for the RJD, which has been charging Nitish Kumar of betraying the people's mandate when he walked away from them and joined the BJP, throwing the RJD and its ministers out of power.
On Sunday, the JDU tried to wash its hands of the ministry expansion. JDU national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said the ministry expansion was an 'internal matter of the BJP and not the NDA' and in Patna, its spokesperson Ajay Alok tweeted indicating that the JDU joining the Union ministry was a creation of the media. To put the record straight, the JDU had never officially said they were joining the Union ministry. But the party never contradicted media reports on the same.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey takes oath during the swearing-in ceremony of new ministers in New Delhi on Sunday. (AFP)
JDU MPs and leaders have been camping in Delhi for the past two days in the hope that the call would come. However, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday declared that there had been no talk with the BJP on ministry expansion. On Saturday, JDU MPs stayed away from the swearing-in function. 'After our national president said it, where is the question of our joining the ministry,' said state JDU president Bashishtha Narayan Singh. However, frustration was writ large on the faces of JDU leaders - many of them had hoped that RCP Singh would be sworn-in as a cabinet minister and even made a beeline for his Delhi residence on Saturday evening with flowers.
Political observers pointed out that the Prime Minister's message for Nitish Kumar and the JDU was loud and clear - that Nitish cannot dictate terms to the BJP as he used to do during his earlier stint with the BJP.
'The days of I propose and you dispose are over. During the Vajpayee-era, Nitish had more access to the Prime Minister than any BJP leader but this time, the same dynamics are not going to work. Nitish may prepare himself for future shocks,' said a senior BJP leader. In fact, one of the BJP MPs elevated as a Union minister, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, went public with his views that the BJP should not ally with Nitish again as he is not trustworthy.
Though it is celebration time for the Bihar BJP as the number of Union ministers has increased, the induction of at least one person has come in for a surprise.
Buxar MP Ashwini Kumar Choubey almost made it to the medical college in his days. He got the call letter from the medical college in Banaras Hindu University late and by the time he reached, the counselling was over. Choubey, however, did head the health department of Bihar during the Nitish regime until he was dismissed in 2013.
Ironically, the dismissal came when the health minister was fighting for his life in the Uttarakhand natural calamity in which some of his relatives and aides were killed. He never forgave Nitish for that. 'But the point is that Choubey did not distinguish himself as the health minister. His predecessor, the BJP minister Chandra Mohan Rai, brought about a drastic change in the health sector,' said a senior BJP leader.
'For most, Choubey's induction in the Union ministry remains a mystery. He represents the Brahmin face of the BJP. But the BJP has already given Brahmins like Vinod Narayan Jha a place in the state ministry. The party should have played the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) card,' remarked a BJP leader.
Though Choubey represents Buxar, his main political base is in Bhagalpur, which has elected him five times as an MLA. BJP leaders indicate Choubey's induction may be bad news for Shahnawaz Hussain, the former MP of Bhagalpur. Choubey's relationship with Hussain is not considered cordial. Choubey wanted to contest from Bhagalpur and considered Shahnawaz an outsider.
In sharp contrast, the induction of Raj Kumar Singh, a former Bihar cadre IAS officer, has won appreciation from even Lalu Prasad. 'He was a good officer and arrested Advani when I ordered him to do so as district magistrate of Samastipur. His service should have been used as defence minister,' said Lalu.
Considered a no-nonsense man, Singh played a key role in transforming potholed roads of Bihar into smooth ones after Nitish Kumar became the chief minister. Ironically, days before he joined the BJP, Nitish had sanctioned a post of an adviser to the Bihar government for him. Singh has won from Ara and though his bureaucratic approach is not always appreciated, his integrity and efficiency have never been questioned. He created a political storm in the party before the 2015 Assembly polls when he alleged that party tickets were being distributed for money.
'If Narendra Modi had to replace another Rajput for Rajiv Pratap Rudy, he could not have made a better choice,' said a BJP leader.
