Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad recently said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should replace Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan with former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Even as Manjhi, whose Hindustan Awam Morcha is a part of the National Democratic Alliance, had demurred, saying that this was unthinkable, Paswan said to the media: "Why doesn't he (Lalu) make Abdul Bari Siddiqui the deputy chief minister?" Siddiqui is a senior RJD leader who has served as Cabinet minister as well as Leader of the Opposition in the state.
At present, he is the finance minister. Lalu's son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav is the deputy CM. Paswan had used Siddiqui's name earlier too. In 2005, when the United Progressive Alliance, of which RJD was a part, had tried to woo him to support former chief minister and Lalu's wife Rabri Devi's government, he had said he would do so only if Siddiqui was made the CM.
