Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that his Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will not be part of the Narendra Modi government as it did not want “symbolic representation”.
“They (the BJP) said that they want to give one cabinet rank to every ally. Then we said that we will discuss it with the party members and then only we can say anything over this symbolic representation.
“I spoke to my party leaders and people and they were not agreeing to one berth and the symbolic representation. And this we communicated to them (BJP). They also called up in the morning and then we again conveyed our decision,” he told media persons here.
Nitish Kumar, however, maintained that the JD-U, which is ruling Bihar along with the BJP, will remain part of the National Democratic Alliance.
The Bihar Chief Minister also reached the Rashtrapati Bhawan to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of the Modi cabinet.
Nitish Kumar on Wednesday arrived in the national capital and directly went to meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah. After meeting Shah, Nitish Kumar also held meeting with his party leaders in the evening.