Nitish Kumar Dismisses Reports of Rift With BJP Over Offer Of ‘Symbolic Representation’ In Cabinet

Dismissing the reports of a rift between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal United over the former's offer of a single cabinet berth to his party, the latter's chief Nitish Kumar on Friday (31 May) said that the issue did not reflect any fissures in the BJP led-National Democratic Alliance (NDA), reports Hindustan Times.

Kumar elaborated that his party decided to not participate in the cabinet formation because it believed that the representation of the allies in the central government should be in proportion to their strength in the parliament.

The BJP according to Kumar had offered one seat as a 'symbolic representation' in the coalition government at this stage.

It should be noted that Kumar was also not present for the oath taking ceremony of the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi led NDA government. His party JD(U) had won 16 of the 40 seats in Bihar in the just culminated Lok Sabha elections while the BJP had alone won 17 seats in Bihar.