PATNA, Nov 15: With a landslide victory in Bihar assembly polls placing the NDA firmly in the saddle, leaders of the alliance on Saturday appeared to have got down to the brass tacks of forming a new government in the state.
Coalition partners made a beeline at 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving incumbent, who heads the JD(U).
Notable visitors included Union minister Chirag Paswan, who is excited at the prospects of his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) sharing power in the state as well.
“I have congratulated Nitish Kumar ji on the victory. The NDA’s win puts paid to the opposition’s false narrative that there has been a rift between the two of us.”
“Even during the campaign, the CM canvassed in seats where our candidate was contesting. We reciprocated the gesture and supported the JD(U) candidate in Alauli, which has been our home turf,” Paswan told reporters.
Paswan ducked queries as to whether the LJP(RV) was hoping to have one of its MLAs as the deputy CM, saying “CM and his deputy are decided jointly by all the legislators”.
He, however, added “personally, I feel that Nitish Kumar ji should continue to lead the government”.
The JD(U) president, who would turn 75 in a few months from now, has not been enjoying robust health for some time, though the polls saw him carrying out a dogged campaign.
Another NDA partner Santosh Kumar Suman, whose father Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Union minister and MP from Gaya, is the founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha, also expressed the view that the JD(U) supremo should continue as the chief minister.
While Suman is also an MLC, his wife Deepa and mother-in-law Jyoti Devi are among the five winning candidates of the HAM, which had contested altogether six seats.
Another notable visitor to the chief minister’s residence was Ram Kripal Yadav, a BJP leader and former Union minister whose political career has been resurrected with a victory from Danapur assembly seat.
He expressed bewilderment over speculations that the BJP was trying to back him for the deputy CM’s post, in a bid to break the near complete sway of RJD, the main opposition party, over Yadavs, the most populous caste in Bihar.
Once a trusted aide of RJD president Lalu Prasad, Yadav was mocked at his former mentor’s son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav for having claimed that the INDIA bloc would be forming its government on November 18.He also refused to comment on outbursts of Bharti’s younger sister Rohini Acharya, who has announced that she was quitting politics and “disowning” her family, blaming the decision on two close aides of Tejashwi Yadav. (PTI)
