Wednesday, November 23 2005 13:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Bihar's would-be Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today annnounced that he would be inducting about 14 ministers, including a deputy chief minister, in the new NDA government in the state.

There will be a deputy chief minister. We will be initially inducting a small team of about 12-14 ministers which would be later expanded," Kumar told reporters after attending the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, where he was felicitated for NDA's sweep in the Bihar assembly elections.

He, however, declined to divulge the name of the person who would be deputy chief minister and said "every thing has been discussed."

BJP leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Shahnawaz Hussain are among the frontrunners for the post closely followed by Ashwani Choubey and Nand Kishore Yadav.

He said the legislature parties of the BJP and JD (U) would be meeting separately at 1600 hours in Patna this evening to be followed by a joint meeting of the two parties at 1800 hours, which would elect the leader of the alliance.

"Thereafter, we would be meeting Governor Buta Singh and staking claim to form the government," he said.