Two Janata Dal (United) leaders could join Narendra Modi’s Union Cabinet when the next expansion happens, The Indian Express has reported.

This is being seen as an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to strengthen its alliance with the JD(U) ahead of the Assembly election in Bihar later this year. The two parties are currently running a coalition government in the state with JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar as chief minister.

The report adds that senior JD(U) Members of Parliament (MPs) Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh and Ram Chandra Prasad Singh could be inducted into the Cabinet.

While JD(U) had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election with the BJP, it had refused to join the government at the Centre in May 2019, claiming that it had been offered only a “symbolic representation” of one portfolio.

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According to the report, BJP leaders had pointed out that the saffron party wanted to avoid a triangular contest in Bihar, which they feel may give the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) the chance to re-emerge with greater strength. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

This comes amid verbal exchanges between BJP leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, and JD(U)’s National Vice President and political strategist Prashant Kishor. In the recent weeks, Kishor has spoken against the amended Citizenship Amendment Act, the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) and prompted revisiting the seat sharing formula for the Assembly polls.

Sushil Modi also launched a veiled attack on Kishor after his assertion that the JD(U) had greater political heft in Bihar.