Patna,(BiharTimes): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not accept answers from other ministers to queries directed at departments the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, is holding in the coming Winter Session of the state Assembly.

“We will not allow ministers in-charge authorized to give replies on behalf of the chief minister,” said leader of opposition in the state Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav, while talking to the media on Wednesday. He said the chief minister should either expand the ministry or distribute his departments among the existing ministers.

He said that he had written to the Speaker of the state Assembly, Uday Narayan Chaudhary, to include the names of six people who died in the Patna serial blasts in the obituary reference of the House.

The Winter Session of the Assembly, which starts from December 6, is likely to be stormy as the opposition parties would raise the issue of law and order, serial blasts in Bodh Gaya and Patna and rise in Maoists’ activities in the state.

Nitish Kumar is at present handling 18 departments, including key ones like health, finance, home and construction. After the dismissal of 11 BJP ministers on June 16 last he had taken the responsibility of all the portfolios held by them. During the Monsoon Session of the Assembly questions related to home were usually answered by water resources minister, Vijay Chaudhary.

Nand Kishore Yadav also charged that after breaking up with the BJP, the state government softened its stand towards terrorists and Maoists. This is a serious issue. He also sought extension of the session, which is to end on December 13.

However, JD(U) state president Bashishtha Narayan Singh did not find anything wrong in ministers replying on behalf of the chief minister. He said the government functions in a collective manner and there is nothing wrong if other ministers reply for the chief minister in the Assembly.

He said In the Assembly, the minister’s reply is not his individual one, but that of the government.