If NDA Wins Bihar Elections This Year, Will Nitish Kumar Remain CM? Here's What BJP Says

Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary affirmed that BJP will support Nitish Kumar for another term as CM, dismissing speculations of a new face.

The election in Bihar is scheduled to be held this year.

Source : PTI

Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will back Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for another term in office and rubbished the speculations that the NDA could push for a new face after the assembly polls due later this year. Speaking to news agency PTI, Choudhary said that the possible entry of Kumar's son Nishant in politics was their personal matter and an internal affair of the JD(U), even as he dismissed Tejashwi Yadav, the NDA's principal challenger in the state, as a mere appointee of RJD president Lalu Prasad.

The saffron party is conformable with the Bihar CM, who has led the NDA in the state since 1996. So Nitish was (the leader) yesterday, he is so today and will remain so tomorrow, said the former state BJP chief.

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A trenchant critique of Nitish until the JDU returned to NDA last year, Choudhary made it clear that while in the opposition, we were supposed to question the government. But, once in a coalition, the BJP is with its alliance partners 100 per cent.He also claimed, Nitish Kumar has himself said so many times that it was because of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he became the chief minister, he further added.

"Nitish Kumar has himself said so many times that it was because of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he became the chief minister. Even RJD president Lalu Prasad had become the CM with BJP's support. But he took a divergent path," Choudhary said.

"On the other hand, with Nitish Kumar we have the situation that he is working under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the national level, while in Bihar he is our leader," he further added.

Speaking about NDA partner Chirag Paswan, a union minister who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), he said the young MP from Hajipur was a tall leader who lends strength to the coalition.

BJP Confident Of Winning Bihar Assembly Polls

Choudhary was also confident of the NDA winning more than 200 seats of the 243-strong assembly in the upcoming polls, thanks to the growth witnessed by the state under the double engine government. The term double engine is used by BJP leaders to refer to the party being in power at the Centre as well as in a state. The deputy CM was, however, dismissive of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the NDA's principal challenger, whom he called not a leader in his own right but merely an appointee of his father Lalu Prasad.

Choudhary also said that the day when Lalu Yadav says that he wants Tej Pratap or Misa Bharti to be his political heir, nobody will care about Tejashwi. The assembly election in Bihar is scheduled to be held this year.