PM Modi's Cabinet Reshuffle Earns Nitish Kumar A Jab From Lalu Yadav

Patna:  Lalu Prasad Yadav has claimed that the Janata Dal United was not invited for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet reshuffle in which four junior ministers were elevated to the cabinet rank and nine new faces inducted as Ministers of State today. The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief said some party leaders had even bought new Kurta-Pyjamas just for the occasion. 

"Some JD(U) leaders had got new Kurta Pyjama and Bundi stitched for the swearing-in ceremony, but the elusive invitation did not come," Mr Yadav said.

He further said that JD(U) national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Saturday admitted that his party had not been invited to join the government nor consulted by the BJP brass on the expansion issue.

"Why should Prime Minister Modi or BJP president Amit Shah consult Kumar when they know about his character?" said the RJD chief taking a dig at Nitish Kumar, who had dumped the Grand Alliance in July to form a government in Bihar with the BJP.

"Modi and Shah are unlikely to bow before their new ally, the JD(U) and its chief Nitish Kumar," he said.

Mr Yadav also expressed disappointment over Mr Kumar's withdrawal of a dinner invite to BJP leaders, including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, at Patna in 2010, over an advertisement row, saying he has not forgotten the incident. 

Mr Modi was right in not "accepting" the invite to visit Patna for having lunch with the chief minister at his official residence recently after an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Bihar, the RJD leader said.

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Mr Yadav claimed, in doing so, the prime minister has returned the "favour" to Nitish Kumar.

On the induction of the former home secretary and the BJP MP from Arrah, R K Singh, in the PM Modi government, Mr Yadav said that the former bureaucrat should have been made a Cabinet minister given his vast experience.