Janata Dal United boss Nitish Kumar called on BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday in a visit seen as an attempt to lobby for ministerial berths a day ahead of Narendra Modi’s swearing-in as Prime Minister for a second term.

The Bihar chief minister, who is in Delhi to attend the swearing-in, also held a meeting of the party’s national office-bearers in the capital.

The JDU won 16 of the 17 seats it contested and is likely to get two berths in the cabinet and one in the junior minister category. The party is learnt to be keen on railways, a portfolio Nitish had held in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Nitish’s favourite for the railway portfolio, according to party insiders, is said to be Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh, who has been elected from the Munger Lok Sabha seat.

The other name for the cabinet being discussed is that of R.C.P. Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP and close confidant of Nitish.

The others in the running are Santosh Kumar, a Kushwaha leader, and Ramnath Thakur, son of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur, who hails from the electorally important extremely backward caste.

BJP insiders, however, said that Modi and Shah may not give two cabinet portfolios to the JDU. “They (the JDU) may get one cabinet and two junior ministers. After all, the BJP also needs to take care of its members from Bihar,” said a BJP leader from the state.

Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, which has won six seats in the polls, is also eyeing a key cabinet berth. The LJP’s parliamentary board had on Tuesday decided that Paswan would represent the party in the government while his son, Chirag, would be the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha.

Paswan was the food and consumer affairs minister in the outgoing government. This time he is said to be lobbying for a more “meaningful” berth in the cabinet. Paswan, too, has been a railway minister in the past.

Given the enormity of the Modi-led BJP’s mandate, it’s unlikely the allies can push beyond a point in securing berths of their choice.