Perhaps for the first time, Bihar has been left high and dry in the Union Council of Ministers with the resignation of Water Resources Minister Meira Kumar.
Perhaps for the first time, Bihar has been left high and dry in the Union Council of Ministers with the resignation of Water Resources Minister Meira Kumar. Kumar, one of the two MPs of Congress who won from Bihar, was the only minister from the state in the new Union Cabinet.
She tendered her resignation after her name was finalised for the post of Lok Sabha speaker. In the previous Cabinet, UPA had 10 ministers from Bihar including Ram Vilas Paswan from LJP, Lalu Prasad, Kanti Singh, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Premchand Gupta (Rajya Sabha), Akhilesh Prasad Singh, M A A Fatmi, Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav from RJD and Meira Kumar and Shakeel Ahmad from Congress.
While Shakeel Ahmad, the former Minister of State for Home, lost the election from Madhubani this time, LJP and RJD contested the election separately from Congress in Bihar after their seat-sharing talks failed.
While LJP could not open its account with even party president Ram Vilas Paswan losing the election, Prasad's party could win only four seats, including the RJD chief himself. However, no minister was inducted from his party as RJD was not a "pre-poll" ally of Congress-led UPA in this Lok Sabha election.Asked about Bihar having no representation in the Union
Cabinet, Lalu Prasad said, "what can I do." "We (RJD) won only four seats and won't be in the ministry. People ensured the victory of NDA candidates thinking they would become Ministers and they did not," he said with a smile.
To a query whether he blames the voters for the poor show in Bihar, Prasad said, "How can I blame the voters. The same voters elected us last time."
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