RJD says Nitish cannot be CM candidate of the alliance

JD(U) says RJD's statement will only help BJP

The Janata Dal (United)-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance talks suffered a jolt on Tuesday.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said his party did not favour Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar as the putative alliance’s chief ministerial candidate.

Singh, a close associate of the RJD leader Lalu Prasad, said there were enough competent leaders in the RJD who could make for a good CM. Last week, Singh had said the RJD should, if there was seat adjustment between the two parties, contest at least 143 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. Kumar suggested, with ample sarcasm, that they should contest all 243.

The JD(U) retorted how the RJD leader’s statement would only help the BJP. “By making such assertions, Singh and others seem to be on the BJP payroll and making statements to benefit the BJP,” state minister Shyam Rajak, a confidante of Kumar, said.

JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, currently in Bihar, refused to add to the war of words. A senior member of the Nitish Kumar Cabinet, Ramai Ram, also favoured elections with prominent faces of all partner parties instead of one, that is Kumar. “The choice of CM candidate can be done by leaders of the alliance partners taking into consideration people’s response,” Ram, an eight-term MLA and a Kumar detractor, said.

Bihar Congress President Ashok Choudhary, after meeting party President Sonia Gandhi on Monday, said Nitish Kumar has proved to be a good CM and putting forward his face in the elections would help the anti-BJP grouping.

In New Delhi, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected any BJP-JD(U) alliance. “Our doors are shut on Nitish Kumar with a big lock,” Prasad said. He said the BJP hasn’t always declared a chief ministerial candidate ahead of recent Assembly elections, suggesting that it was unlikely to do so in Bihar elections, to be held in October.