Patna: After suffering a major blow in the recent assembly polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that now the NDA will decide on the Chief Minister issue in the state.
“It is up to the BJP to decide fate of those who cut votes,” said Nitish Kumar taking an indirect dig at Lok Janshakti Party Chief Chirag Paswan.
It may be recalled that in the recently held Bihar polls, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United suffered because of the Chirag Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party.
The equation between Paswan and Nitish Kumar had not been cordial after Chirag Paswan announced that he wants ‘Nitish-Mukt Bihar’.
He also decided to go solo, maintaining that he supports the BJP, but will not be part of the alliance that has JDU in it.
The decision of Chirag Paswan came as a major setback for Nitish Kumar and the subsequent poor performance by the JDU reduced the JDU to being a mere junior partner in the decade old alliance with the BJP.
The JDU plunged from 71 seats in 2015 to 43 seats this time.
It may be noted that Chirag Paswan’s LJP had won only one seat, but yet, Chirag’s decision to raise rebellion against Nitish Kumar ate away the JDU votes, leading to loss of nearly 30 seats.
The BJP, which is nursing the wound of losing alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra over confusions over the CM’s post had maintained from the begining that Nitish Kumar will remain to be its Chief Minister candidate for Bihar and now even after the voters beating JDU in the elections, the BJP has reiterated that it will still go with Nitish Kumar as the CM.
