The Bihar CM also targeted his former ally and RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav, by indirectly referring to him as a "darling of the media", who gives statements to remain in news.
A day after the latest Modi cabinet reshuffle, in which no member of Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) was inducted, Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U president Nitish Kumar dismissed talks of his party's inclusion in the Union council of ministers as a figment of "media speculation".
"Our party has just joined the NDA fold. We have neither thought about it, nor do we have any expectation or desire (to join the Union cabinet). JD-U was dragged into the discussion even though there were no talks about it," said Kumar, while addressing media persons at his first Lok Samvad after the split from the Mahagathbandhan and the JD(U)-BJP government coming to power in the state.
He said he and his party worked in a transparent manner and any query relating to it should be asked directly to him. "This time the media's speculation about the JD-U was way off the mark," he said.
The Bihar CM also targeted his former ally and RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav, by indirectly referring to him as a "darling of the media", who gives statements to remain in news. "His rally was a family function. What was political about it that I should comment?" said Kumar when asked to comment on RJD's August 27 anti-BJP rally, in which leaders of at least 17 Opposition parties participated.
He also said, "How many of the RJD's 80 MLAs got a seat on the dais? We even saw an edited picture of the rally crowd." Lalu, who took a dig at the JD-U for not being invited in Modi's cabinet on Sunday, was a butt of jokes on August 27 when he had shared an "edited" photo of the rally crowd on his Twitter handle.
Kumar also alleged that it was Lalu who was trying to spread rumours about a split in the Bihar Congress, as he was "unemployed" after the disintegration of the Grand Alliance government in the state.
On PM Narendra Modi's Rs 500-crore flood relief package, Kumar said, "The fund announced by the PM is interim, not final. We are in the process of assessing our damages and I will meet him again in the coming days to discuss the same."
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