Cabinet rejig: JD(U) clarifies it's not joining the new team

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The Janata Dal United (JD(U)) on Sunday clarified that no one from the party is joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new team, under the mega Cabinet rejig scheduled to take place today.

"Our National President has already made it clear, so there is no question of me or anyone from the JD(U) joining the cabinet," JD(U) leader Vashistha Narayan Singh told ANI.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earlier said that the JD(U) had no talks with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre on his party joining the Cabinet.

"We have no information about the Cabinet reshuffle. We didn't have any talks about it. We got the information about this from the media," Nitish told the reporters.

Contrary to this, reports had earlier quoted that JD(U) leaders R.C.P. Singh and Ramnath Thakur were likely to be inducted into the Union Cabinet on Sunday morning.

Prime Minister Modi will reshuffle his Cabinet on Sunday at 10.30 a.m. before leaving for China to attend the BRICS Summit.

Several Cabinet ministers have already stepped down from their posts, viz. Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Baliyan and Faggan Singh Kulaste.