JD-U leader sets off buzz over second Deputy CM in Bihar

PATNA:  Parliamentary board chairman of the ruling JD-U Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday indicated the appointment of one more deputy chief minister in Bihar’s grand alliance government, saying CM Nitish Kumar would take the final call on it. In the previous NDA government, there were two deputy CMs, both from BJP. The saffron party had given the CM post to JD-U leader Nitish even as the latter’s party was relegated to the third position in the last assembly elections. The BJP extracted the full price for it by not only securing two deputy CMs but also the post of Assembly speaker.

Current deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav belongs to the RJD. The party may accept Kushwaha as deputy chief minister given the fact that Nitish had already announced that Tejashwi would be the CM face in the 2025 assembly polls.

Implicit in Kushwaha’s comment is his demand for the No. 2 post. At the time of the formation of a new grand alliance government in the state, it was expected that Kushwhaha would be given the ministerial berth. When he did not find a place in the state cabinet, the buzz went around that he was sulking over the short shrift allegedly being given to him by Nitish. There have been rumours of his joining the BJP.

“It is up to the CM to decide who should be a part of the government and who should be put outside it,” Kushwha added. He, however, refuted the reports that he would join BJP. The controversy erupted after Kushwaha congratulated former deputy chief minister and BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi on the latter’s birthday.

When found himself in the thick of controversy, Kushwaha sought to downplay the issue, asserting that he was not concerned how his remark was interpreted. He was not an aspirant for a minister’s post in the Nitish cabinet, he stressed.

Kushwaha belongs to the Koeri caste, which along with Kurmi caste forms the Luv-Kush caste equation, the mainstay of the JD-U vote bank.