Nitish Kumar has maintained that there was no anger and the JD(U) will remain the part of the NDA. (Photo: Reuters)

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was upset after his party - Janata Dal (United) - was allocated only Cabinet berth in the new Narendra Modi government, offered only one seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Bihar cabinet which was expanded on Sunday. In the state cabinet expansion, Nitish Kumar included eight leaders of the JD(U) and offered one seat to the BJP, for which the latter is yet to find a candidate.

While Nitish Kumar has maintained that there was no anger and the JD(U) will remain the part of the NDA, speculations are rife that the Bihar chief minister is upset with how the Bharatiya Janata Party has treated its allies after its clean sweep in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

Before the Cabinet formation, JD(U) leaders were of the view that the party may get two berths - one with Cabinet rank and another with the minister of state profile.

After the Bihar cabinet expansion, Nitish Kumar again maintained that everything is fine in the alliance and said that "when the alliance formed, it is decided in advance that which party will have how many seats and which department".

JDU will not do any alliance with the BJP for the Bihar polls?#ITVideo

More Videos: https://t.co/NounxnP7mg pic.twitter.com/jK94bne7lF India Today (@IndiaToday) June 2, 2019





Earlier on May 29, Nitish Kumar met former BJP president and current Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed his party's representation in the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nitish Kumar, later, announced that JD(U) will not be a part of the Cabinet.

He said there was no "unease" between the alliance partners and that the decision against joining the ministry was taken as the JD(U)'s presence there would have been merely "symbolic".

According to the sources, Amit Shah had tried to convince Nitish Kumar on accepting one seat in the Modi cabinet to the JD(U) but the Bihar chief minister spurned the offer, insisting on "proportional representation" for his party.

"I kept listening to him and the sense I had was that it was to be a symbolic presence for the JD(U) in the government. I didn't want that. Still, as he insisted, I told him that I will consult my party and get back to him," Nitish Kumar told reporters after meeting Amit Shah.

When asked how that proportional representation would have been determined, Nitish Kumar said, the number could be reached by taking into account the seats each party won country-wide or in Bihar. The BJP and JD(U) had contested on 17 seats each in Bihar. While the BJP won all the 17 seats it had contested on, the JD(U) won 16.

Earlier in the day, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said that the party will not join the Modi government in future. He also said that the BJP wanted to give just one seat to the JD(U) which was "unacceptable to us". "No scope of any negotiation with the BJP; ahead of Bihar election also, we will not join the cabinet in center."