Wednesday, November 23 2005 15:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Board today (Nov 23, 2005) appointed two Central observers M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley for Bihar and authorised them to hold talks with party legislators and finalise names of its ministers including the Deputy Chief Minister.

"We will be holding discussions with the state legislators. No names for any post have been finalised", party Vice-President Naidu told sources after a 15-minute long meeting of the Board, chaired by party President L K Advani.

Interestingly, the would-be Janata Dal (JD) United (U) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had claimed earlier in the day that all the names including that of the Deputy Chief Minister had been finalized.

Both Naidu and Jaitley left for Patna amid speculation that either state party President Sushil Kumar Modi or its former legislature party leader Ashwani Choubey could be nominated to the Dy Chief Minister's post.

Former Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain and state National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Convener Nand Kishore Yadav are also counted among front-runners for the post.

When asked about the composition of the Government, Advani merely said, "Balance will be struck".

Both former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani would be attending Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony at Patna's Gandhi Maidan tomorrow (Nov 24, 2005).