Patna, Nov. 12: As the RJD-JDU-Congress Grand Alliance begins the process of government formation, there are certainties as well as question marks.
What is certain is that the joint meeting of the Grand Alliance MLAs - likely to be held on Saturday - will elect Nitish Kumar as its leader, after which he will stake claim to form the new government.
What is also certain is that the joint meeting of the Grand Alliance legislators will be held after each of the three parties have held their own meetings. MLAs of the RJD, the largest alliance partner in terms of seats won, are likely to meet on Friday and elect the leader of the party in the Assembly. The meeting will be addressed by party chief Lalu Prasad. According to informed sources the name of Abdul Bari Siddiqui - the leader of the RJD in the outgoing Assembly - leads the list of probables. However, a section of the RJD leaders feel that Lalu might throw his weight behind one of his sons.
"It would be like passing the baton to his next generation," remarked an RJD leader. "This is an opportune time (to do so)." On the JDU side, there is no such uncertainty, Nitish Kumar told journalists on Thursday that the legislators of his party will meet on Saturday. The party will elect Nitish as its leader. On Thursday, state Congress chief Ashok Choudhary travelled to Delhi to consult the party high command on ministry formation. All 27 newly elected MLAs of the Congress are likely to meet both AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. Sadanand Singh, the senior-most among the Bihar Congress legislators, was the leader of the party in the outgoing Assembly. On Saturday morning, the Congress legislative party is likely to meet at Sadaqat Ashram in Patna. According to Congress sources both the leader of the legislative party and the ministers will be nominated by the party's Delhi high command. Sources indicate that senior Congress leaders like Sadanand Singh, V.S. Dubey, Awadhesh Singh, Mohammed Jawed and Ashok Ram could be made ministers. That is, said a senior Congress leader, "unless Choudhary is able to convince the party high command to give a couple of berths to 15 first-timer MLAs who are loyal loyalty to him."
On Wednesday, Nitish held a meeting with Governor Ram Nath Kovind.
Though Nitish described it as a courtesy call, informed sources indicated that the chief minister has told the governor that the swearing-in ceremony will be held by November 20 and all related formalities would be completed much before that. Nitish told journalists that his current government will hold its last cabinet meeting on Saturday, in which it would recommend the dissolution of the present Assembly - paving the way for the swearing in of the new government.
While there is a lot speculation in political circles about the likely ministers and their portfolios, the issue of the new Speaker is yet to be resolved among the Grand Alliance partners. Political observers stressed that the JDU would like to keep the post to itself. Present Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhary of the JDU has been defeated in the Assembly polls. And the RJD may insist that the post should go to it since it is the largest party in the alliance.
