Nitish Kumar may take oath with a small ministry if allies delay list

PATNA: Bihar's caretaker chief minister Nitish Kumar may take oath with a small team of ministers on November 20 in case RJD and Congress delay providing the list of ministers from their quota.

JD(U) sources said in case of his own party, Nitish has a free hand and no one would interfere in it except for offering a few suggestions. "We want to give him a free hand as he is the person who steered the grand alliance to victory and also has the responsibility to meet aspirations of people. There is no problem in our party and the list of ministers from JD(U) quota will be ready on time," said a JD(U) legislator close to Nitish.

However, sources said, there was some uncertainty about the ministers' list from the RJD and Congress quota coming on time. A newly elected RJD legislator said a very close associate of RJD chief Lalu Prasad has told him that the party may delay giving its list to Nitish.

"I have come to know that Lalu's both sons — Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav — want to become ministers and this has forced Laluji to delay the decision," said the legislator. So far as Congress is concerned, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to meet newly elected legislators only on November 19.

"If Nitish has to take oath on November 20, he has to submit the list of ministers by November 19 evening to the governor. Nitish is a person who never takes steps in a haste and will not like to submit the list at the last moment," said a source, adding he could take oath with a small team.

As per the constitutional norms, the council of ministers can have a maximum of 35 ministers beside the CM. Given the strength of various grand alliance partners in the newly elected state assembly, the formula of one minister-for-every-five MLAs is being talked about in political circles. If this formula is followed, the RJD, JD(U) and Congress will have 16, 15 and 5 ministers.

Contacted on the issue, JD(U) spokesman Sanjay Singh and RJD spokesman Pragati Mehta said a decision would be taken by senior party leaders.