Nitish-Modi fight worsening? JD(U) says won't join Union Cabinet; Bihar CM skips PM-led NITI Aayog meet

Relations seem to be deteriorating further between allies Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United). Bihar Chief Minister's party said that it would not be a part of the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The JD(U) and BJP share power in Bihar.

On 7 August, JD(U)'s national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, reportedly said, "We had decided in 2019, after the Lok Sabha polls, not to join the government at the Centre. We stick to that stand even now."

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On the same day, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar skipped the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by PM Modi in Delhi. Nitish cited post-Covid issues, according to sources quoted in news reports. However, the Bihar CM reportedly attended an event in Patna on the occasion of National Handloom Day.

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Meanwhile, JD(U)'s president fired salvos at RCP Singh, who resigned from the party on 6 August after being denied a Rajya Sabha ticket due to which he lost his Union Cabinet berth. Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that for a long time, RCP Singh was physically in JD(U) but his soul had been elsewhere.

A day earlier, RCP Singh called the JD(U) a sinking ship, and said that Nitish Kumar would not become Prime Minister even in seven lives.