Tejaswi may be Dy CM, RJD eyes plum posts

Contrary to the general perception that Nitish may work towards forming a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front, the Bihar CM has given pride of place to Congress leaders. The list of 35 invitees contains names of 11 Congress leaders, including that of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Preparations are in full swing amid the speculations that Lalu Prasad’s younger son Tejaswi Yadav would be first choice of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) among Lalu Prasad’s three children – Misa Bharti, Tejpratap and Tejaswi – as deputy CM of the state. The speculations are also rife that senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui is also a frontrunner for the coveted post.

Among the prominent Congress leaders, who will be attending the oath taking ceremony of Kumar at historic Gandhi Maidan, include Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Himachal Chief Minister Birbhadra Singh, Karnataka Chief minister M Siddaramaiah, Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, former Haryana CM Bhupendra Singh Hooda, former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi, party’s leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and former MP Raj Babbar.

Among the other galaxy of leaders who will be witnessing the grand oath ceremony include Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri, former CMs of Jharkhand – Babu Lal Marandi and Hemant Soren, National Conference leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah, DMK’s TMK Stalin, Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh, NCP president Sharad Pawar and his colleague Praful Patel.

It’s not that leaders of only non-BJP parties would be attending the show, some ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also be attending the ceremony. Union Ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Venkaiah Naidu would be the part of oath ceremony as representative of PM Modi, as the PM is going 

out of the country.

Other senior leaders of BJP like Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who were invited by Kumar for the ceremony, would give it a miss. Wishing Kumar best of luck for his next spell, Singh has written to Kumar that since he has to chair the International Grassland Congress, it wouldn’t be possible for him to be in Patna.

Notably, RJD, which emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar elections by winning 80 of the 178 seats bagged by the Grand Alliance, is likely to have a strong presence in the Bihar cabinet. According to sources, the Mahagadbandhan would distribute cabinet seats on the basis of ‘one minister for five MLAs’ formula. This would give RJD 16 ministers, the JD(U) 15 and the Congress five.

Sources have indicated that the Yadav community is likely to get a significant number of posts in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet. The RJD has reportedly asked for ministries such as finance, agriculture, and road construction, while the JD(U) is likely to keep the home department along with education. The Congress, on the other hand, is eyeing the post of the Assembly Speaker. Congress veteran Sadanand Singh may be given the post.