Upper caste can't become Bihar CM: Griraj Singh

Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Friday said a person belonging to the upper caste cannot become Bihar chief minister after the upcoming assembly polls in the state.

"An upper caste cannot become chief minister of Bihar," said Giriraj Singh, who belongs to the upper caste Bhumihar community, which has a strong presence in state politics.

After visiting Muzaffarpur, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address a public rally on July 25 to formally kick off Bharatiya Janata Party's poll campaigning, Giriraj Singh said the upper caste people were only eager for a developed Bihar.

"Lalu and Nitish should not worry about upper caste, they should play their caste politics to create divide and hatred in society," Giriraj Singh said.

Last week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his new ally Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad countered BJP chief Amit Shah for claiming that Modi was the country's first OBC prime minister.

Both the leaders said H.D. Deve Gowda was India's first prime minister from the Other Backward Classes (OBC).

BJP chief Shah, last week, said in New Delhi that it was his party that gave the maximum number of OBC chief ministers and the first prime minister in Modi.

According to political observers here, despite Modi's call for an end to caste-based politics in Bihar, a deep-rooted tussle in the BJP between upper caste and other backward caste (OBC) leaders, ahead of assembly polls, has put BJP in a dilemma.