Amid talks of Union Cabinet expansion, Bihar leaders hopeful of getting four more berths

PATNA: With PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah holding a series of one-to-one and group meetings with senior BJP leaders, the party MPs from different states and some ministers, speculations are rife about possible expansion of the Union cabinet in next few days.
There is a strong buzz in Bihar’s political circles about the likely inclusion of JD(U) members and also rebel LJP MP Pashupati Kumar Paras in the Narendra Modi Cabinet.
Paras himself gave air to the speculations on Thursday when he, while addressing a press conference in the state capital here, categorically said that he would give up the post of the LJP’s parliamentary board chairman once he will take oath as a Cabinet minister.
The way Paras made his statement it was very clear that he had been assured about his inclusion in the Modi cabinet in the upcoming expansion in place of his elder brother and former Union minister late Ram Vilas Paswan.
Sources said, Paras made an overnight coup in the party only after getting a firm assurance about a cabinet berth from the NDA’s top brass.
“Since Paras has already been notified as the LJP parliamentary party leader in the Lok Sabha by the Speaker, his entry in the Modi cabinet as the LJP representative is cent per cent confirmed. He is virtually waiting for the date of announcement of oath-taking,” a senior LJP leader told TOI on Friday.
“Paras and three other LJP MPs - Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser, Veena Devi and Chandan Singh, who had arrived Patna on Thursday to attend a party meeting, returned to Delhi on Friday in the wake of likely political developments,” LJP spokesperson Shravan Kumar Agrawal told TOI over phone from Delhi on Friday.
As per the Constitutional provisions, the cap on the Union council of ministers is 15% of the strength of the Lok Sabha, or 81. At present, the Union cabinet has a total of 54 ministers including PM Modi against the total berth of 81. Thus, Modi can now include 27 more people in his cabinet.
Currently, there are only five ministers from Bihar in the Union Cabinet. All are from the BJP. Of the five, two – Ravi Shankar Prasad and Giriraj Singh -- are cabinet ministers, one (Raj Kumasr Singh is minister of state Independent charge) while other two — Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Nityanand Rai – are the ministers of state.
Of the five ministers — four hail from the Savarn group representing all castes of Savarn category. While Prasad hails from Kayastha community, Giriraj is from the Bhumihar community. Raj Kumar is from Rajput and Ashwini Choubey from Brahmin community. Nityanand Rai hails from Yadav community, an OBC group.
Sources in the BJP said, the party leadership now wants to induct ministers from other castes especially from Baniyas (trading community) and scheduled castes, who have so far remain unrepresented from the state BJP quota. Names of Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi and the BJP state president Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal are doing the rounds in the state political circles as the front runner for the cabinet berth at the Centre.
Sources in the JD(U) said, the party president RCP Singh and Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh would be the party’s first choice for the Union ministers, if the BJP offers only two cabinet berths to the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s party.
But the JD(U) also wants to send one member from the extremely backward castes (EBCs), which are its core voters, to the Union Cabinet. Hence, the JD(U) wants at least three berths in the Modi cabinet during the coming expansion. “If three births are made available to the JD(U), names of senior leaders like Rajya Sabha member Ram Nath Thakur (who is son of former CM Karpoori Thakur) and Jehanabad MP Chandeshwar Prasad may be considered,” a senior JD(U) leader said, adding the JD(U) would join the Modi cabinet only when it gets a “respectable representation”.
Contacted, JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi told TOI that any decision regarding the inclusion of JD(U) members in the Union cabinet would be taken by the party leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. “We will let you know, if the party takes any decision regarding the Union cabinet,” he said.
Leaders of Bihar are hopeful of getting at least four more berths — one for LJP’s Paras, one for BJP, and two for JD(U) leaders -- in the next expansion of the Modi cabinet.