Saturday, November 26 2005 16:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today (Nov 26, 2005) continued hectic parleys with his senior party functionaries and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass over allocation of portfolios among the newly-appointed ministers, it is learnt that Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi would have the charge of the key finance department.

"Deputy CM will hold the portfolio of finance and commercial taxes," highly-placed sources in ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) told sources today.

Chief Minister would keep the home, personnel, cabinet coordination departments with him, sources said.

Kumar also had talks with senior BJP leaders, including its General Secretary in-charge of Bihar Affairs Arun Jaitley, over distribution of portfolios.

The portfolios of the ministers were likely to be notified by the state cabinet and coordination department later this evening, sources said.

Chief Minister had yesterday said the portfolios would be allocated by today as a cabinet decision had been taken to convene the inaugural session of both the houses of the state legislature from Monday.