Patna,(BiharTimes): Perhaps Nitish Kumar had, on June 16 last––when he parted ways with the BJP and sacked 11 of its ministers––taken a vow not to expand his cabinet and nominate any person to the Bihar Legislative Council.

So he left these ‘important’ works on his successor, Jitan Ram Manjhi, to do. Within a fortnight of his becoming the chief minister the dozen strong seats in the Upper House have been filled and 12 new ministers inducted in the cabinet.

What is strange is that old and loyal legislators of the Janata Dal (United) have not been inducted, whereas the turncoats have been rewarded. 

The inclusion of Rajiv Ranjan, alias Lallan Singh and the three RJD MLAs, Samrat Chaudhary, Jawaid Eqbal Ansari and Ram Lakhan Ram Raman,  who crossed over to the Janata Dal (United) was very much expected. They were nominated to the Council only a few days back.

Even the former Congressman, Mahachandra Prasad Singh, MLC, has been made minister in the Manjhi cabinet though he virtually revolted on the eve of the Lok Sabha election. He in fact wanted to contest from Munger parliamentary seat on the party ticket.

Political observers are surprised over the way the Janata Dal (United) is functioning in Bihar. It remained a mystery as to why the then chief minister Nitish Kumar did not expand the cabinet for one full year and did not nominate anyone to the Council. Why did not he rely on around 100 MLAs, most of them loyal ones, and instead asked Jitan Ram Manjhi to take into his cabinet the defectors?

Analysts wonder as to why the Janata Dal (United) government is giving so much prominence to the legislators, who have not got the people’s mandate to rule, but sit in the opposition. “Instead of checking the growing dissidence the party leadership (read Nitish) is turning friends into foes,” one of them commented.