JD(U) executive meet on June 9

The national executive of the JD(U) will meet in Patna on June 9, days after the party declined to be part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in protest against the "symbolic representation" of one ministerial berth offered to it.

JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi on Monday said the national executive meeting was necessitated as the party had to complete its organisational election and other procedures by October, in line with the Election Commission's (EC) directives.

"Not much politics should be read into it," he said.

Though JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has refuted suggestions of any difference with its ally, but his decision to induct eight legislators of his party as ministers in his government while leaving out the BJP has fuelled speculation of acrimony between the two parties.

Tyagi also asserted that his party was and would remain part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

He was responding to a question about senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh's suggestion that all non-BJP parties should join hands, seen to be aimed at Kumar.

The JD(U) had broken its ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2013 and joined hands with its arch rival, the RJD, in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, handing a massive defeat to the saffron party.

However, Kumar's ties with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) soon soured and he struck an alliance with the BJP again in 2017.

The NDA swept the state in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, winning 39 of the 40 seats.

However, Kumar refused the BJP's offer of one ministerial berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to his party. The JD(U) did not agree with the symbolic representation offered to it, he had said.

JD(U) sources said the party deserved three berths in the central government.