Polls in mind, new Nitish team may keep room open for RJD, Congress

PATNA: Nitish Kumar, who on Saturday publicly apologized for quitting as chief minister after last year's Lok Sabha election, is likely to head a small cabinet this time with his deputy from RJD.
JD(U) sources said Nitish may take the oath of office along with 10 to 12 legislators at Raj Bhavan at 5pm on Sunday. They indicated that old timers who served in the last Nitish ministry might dominate the list of ministers this time.
The JD(U) sources said Nitish might pick from among Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Ramai Ram, P K Shahi and Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lallan', Shyam Rajak, Shrawan Kumar, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Lesie Singh, Javed Iqbal Ansari, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Damodar Raut, Ramdhani Singh and Gautam Singh.
The sources said the name of Rishi Mishra was also being considered for a ministerial berth. He could be used as a counter to Nitin Mishra who sided with Jitan Ram Manjhi. The Mishras have considerable sway in Mithilanchal.
The chances of Shahi and Lallan getting into the cabinet are strong because they had strongly resisted Manjhi till they were sacked from the government on February 7.
The name of Dulalchand Goswami, an independent MLA from Balrampur in Katihar district, is also doing the rounds.

The sources did not rule out the possibility of Ramai, who is pitching for the post of a deputy CM, getting a plum post. They said JD(U) might offer the post of deputy CM to RJD after Nitish faces a trust vote, probably on March 11.
On the other hand, Congress sources said their leaders would take up the issue of joining the government with the party high command. "We may take some more time to take a decision. We have to study its impact on our performance in the next assembly election to be held this autumn," one of them added.
RJD legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said, "Our core committee has authorized Lalu Prasad to take a call on this."
Lalu will return here on Sunday from Saifai in Uttar Pradesh where he has gone to attend 'tilak' of Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandnephew Tej Pratap, who is getting married to the RJD chief's daughter, Raj Laxmi. "We will go by whatever decision our leader will take," Siddiqui said.
JD(U) leaders said they would be cautious while choosing ministers. "Considering the current political uncertainty and the coming election, we must have scope for expansion," one of them remarked, adding, "We have to take factors like caste and regional matrix into consideration."
Keeping in mind the guest list for Sunday's oath-taking ceremony, many said the occasion might give an opportunity to non-BJP non-Congress national leaders to gather in a state on the threshold of an important election.
Besides JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal CM Mamata Bannerji, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and INLD leader Ajay Chautala are likely to attend the ceremony.