Nitish Kumar should come to the fore of national politics: Shivanand Tiwari

Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Shivanand Tiwari on Wednesday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and urged him to take initiatives and come to the fore of national politics.

"Nitish Kumar has been the Chief Minister of Bihar for the past 14 years. It is time for him to start thinking about his future. He should take initiatives and come to the fore of national politics. He has the caliber," Tiwari told ANI.

The RJD leader also asserted that the opposition in the country is in a bad state.

"The Akhilesh-Mayawati alliance has been broke and BSP extended their support to the scrapping of Article 370. On the other hand, Congress did not have a President for over two months ever since Rahul Gandhi resigned from his position," he said.

Tiwari said that Kumar has maintained his image as a secular leader and people believe in him.

"Kumar opposed the scrapping of Article 370. People know that despite Nitish Kumar being in an alliance with BJP, he is a secular leader," Tiwari added.

Janata Dal (United) had, on August 5, walked out of the Lok Sabha in protest against the scrapping of Article 370 which conferred special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Tiwari also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of working on religious lines and trying to appease the Hindus in the country for vote bank politics.

"Ever since the BJP came to power in 2019, they have been working on religious lines, be it with Triple Talaq bill or scrapping of Article 370. They are trying to turn into vote bank the Hindus in the country," he added.