Patna,(BiharTimes): Food minister in the Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet on Thursday denied that he is in the race for the post of chief minister and that there is any political meaning to the dinner hosted by him on Wednesday night. In all 18 ministers reportedly took part in it.

Talking to the media he said there is no vacancy for the post of chief minister in the JD(U) so there is no question of he taking over the rein of the state.

“Jitan Ram Manjhi is our leader and he is pushing ahead the policy and programme of Nitish Kumar. We all are supporting Manjhi,” he said.

On being asked why not all the ministers were invited he replied that there are many dinner parties in which he is not invited. So no meaning should be attached to it.The trio of Narendra Singh, Brishen Patel and Nitish Mishra were not in the dinner.

Analysts are of the view that the dinner was hosted to create a pressure group against chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi as those who attended dinner are considered close to the former chief minister Nitish Kumar

Prominent among those who attended the dinner were forest minister Prashant Kumar Shahi, urban development minister Samrat Chaudhury and and parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar.

Incidentally, earlier on Wednesday, Rajak had a meeting with Nitish.