PATNA : The oath taking ceremony of Grand Aliance’s chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar is expected to take place tentatively on November 20, three days after Bihar’s most important festival of ‘Chhath’.
State JD(U) president Basisth Narayan Singh said that there had been no discussion among Grand Alliance partners, RJD and Congress on the power sharing formula to decide size and portfolio distribution including whether to have a Deputy Chief Minister.
Notwithstanding the official reason given for the delay in government formation due to Diwali and Chhath festivals, sources in the Grand Alliance attribute this to intense lobbying by RJD for the post of Deputy Chief Minister to Tejashvi Prasad Yadav,the youngest son of party supremo Lalu Prasad.
The RJD camp is fortifying its claim for the post of Deputy Chief Minister on the basis of the party having emerged as the single largest party, bagging 80 seats in the 243- member state assembly against 71 of JD(U), and 27 of Congress.
Congress too is understood to be lobbying for the post of the Speaker of the assembly.Though the Speaker’s post is not considered as important as the Deputy CM’s, it is RJD’s claim which has made the task of choosing the speaker difficult for Mr Kumar.
Mr Kumar, according to sources close to him, would like to retain key portfolios like home, finance, energy, roads and education to fulfill his seven poll promises.He had promised to give students credit cards,all weather roads in every village, free electricity connection to each household, free WIFI in universities and colleges and 35 per cent reservation to women in government jobs. (UNI)
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