Nitish Kumar has offered Bjp to fill the vacant ministerial seat.Bjp decided to fill it in future . — Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) 1559456926000

PATNA: Three days after JD(U) refused to join the Narendra Modi government after being offered only one cabinet berth, Nitish Kumar on Sunday expanded his Bihar cabinet with eight ministers from his party following its ally BJP turned down his proposal to give one representation to the saffron party.Nitish, however, ruled out any rift between the allies. “Everything is fine between JD(U) and BJP,” he said, adding that BJP leaders were not keen to name a person for the cabinet post. “There were eight vacancies from the JD(U) quota in the state cabinet. Other allies have very nominal vacancy from their quota. Therefore, only JD(U) leaders were inducted on Sunday. There is no issue with BJP,” Nitish told reporters at the Raj Bhavan.Nitish’s deputy in the Bihar cabinet and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted that BJP decided to fill the vacant berth “in future”.On Thursday, Nitish had said JD(U) decided to stay out of the Modi cabinet as it did not want a “token participation” , triggering speculations of rift between the two allies.With the induction of eight JD(U) ministers, the strength of the cabinet has gone up to 33. Going by the total number of legislators in Bihar, the Constitution provides a maximum of 36 ministers, leaving three vacancies in the ministry. Of the three vacancies, one each belong to BJP, JD(U) and LJP as per their respective quotas, JD(U) sources said.Contrary to the Modi cabinet where upper castes from Bihar were given higher representation, Nitish opted for leaders from backward castes, extremely backward castes and dalits in his cabinet expansion. Two members each from the three sections were sworn in on Sunday. Four of the six ministers from Bihar who were inducted into the Modi government were from upper castes.BJP ruled out any hidden message in the cabinet expansion. “As per the agreement among the NDA allies in Bihar, the distribution of ministerial berths has been done based on the number of MLAs with each party. Accordingly, JD(U) can have 20 ministers, BJP 14 and LJP one,” senior BJP leader and state minister Nand Kishor Yadav said.RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan, however, said, “All is not well in the NDA. Nitish Kumar has taken revenge for the embarrassment he faced at the Centre.”