RJD meet today to decide role in government

Nitish Kumar will take oath for the fourth time as the chief minister of Bihar after the massive victory of the Grand Secular Alliance in the state Assembly. Intensifying the process to form the new government under Mr Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Yadav is to hold a meeting in Patna on Friday to decide the role of his party.

Mr Yadav, who is busy holding a series of meetings in Patna, according to sources, has already has finalised a list of ministers to take oath with Mr Kumar. RJD sources said “all newly-elected legislators will attend the RJD meeting. Mr Yadav will decide and brief the members about the party’s role in the state government which is to be formed under Mr Kumar.”

Meanwhile, the JD(U), RJD and the Congress will jointly hold a legislature party meeting on November 14 and elect Mr Kumar as their leader before sending recommendations to dissolve the state Assembly. The current Assembly’s tenure ends on November 29.

“We will meet on November 14 and after going through the usual process of electing a leader of the House and recommending dissolution of the state Assembly, we will decide the date of oath,” Mr Kumar said on Thursday in Patna.

Mr Kumar, party sources said, is likely to take oath between November 15 and November 20, most likely on November 20 after the auspicious Chhat festival. They said: “Around 35 to 38 ministers are likely to take oath at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on November 20 with the chief minister.”

Amid the exercise to form a government in the state, speculation is rife that Mr Yadav is also trying to strike a deal with Mr Kumar to establish his family in Bihar politics, most likely for his son or his eldest daughter Misa Bharti, who had lost the Lok Sabha election in 2014. Though Mr Yadav and Mr Kumar have always downplayed such questions, sources in the Grand Alliance say: “Lalu Yadav is still trying to work out roles for his sons and daughter in Bihar politics.”

The other day, when Misa Bharti was asked to clarify her stand on the issue, she, while terming herself and her two brothers “committed karyakartas (workers) of the RJD”, diplomatically answered that the “party will decide what it wants us do, we are committed to work for the party”.