BJP hits back at JD(U)-RJD over party's CM face in Bihar polls

Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Radha Mohan Singh today hit back at JD(U)-RJD for ridiculing BJP for not projecting its chief ministerial candidate for Bihar Assembly polls due this year saying there was no dearth of leadership in the state.
Talking to reporters at the Cabinet briefing Agriculture Minister Singh said, "There is no dearth of leadership in Bihar BJP".
Taking a dig at RJD leader Lalu Prasad, who today attacked the BJP for not projecting a chief ministerial face for assembly polls despite being the world's largest political party, Singh said, "Has any of our leader been convicted?"

He said, neither of its state leaders were convicted in any case nor his party was facing a situation in which it had to declare some other person a leader due to any such eventuality, in apparent reference to declaration of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar as the face of JDU-RJD alliance for the assembly polls, when a convicted RJD Chief Lalu Prasad was unable to contest polls.
Taking the argument further, Telecom Minister Ravishankar Prasad said, "And nobody will make anybody else the leader by consuming poison."
Both, Prasad and Singh, are senior BJP leaders from Bihar.

On June 8, when Kumar was named as the CM candidate of the JDU-RJD alliance after a war of words over the issue for many days, Lalu Prasad had said that he was ready to drink "poison" to crush the "cobra" of communalism, a remark which he later downplayed.

Asserting that there was "no dispute" on leadership issue in Bihar BJP, Prasad said the state elections will be fought on the planks of good governance and economic development.
Remaining non-committal about its Chief Ministerial face for Bihar Assembly polls, Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who has been made the BJP's in-charge for Bihar polls had yesterday said in Patna that the party will go to the hustings by projecting its development agenda under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prasad found nothing wrong in it and said that Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister and the leader of the country.
Lalu Prasad, who had last week declared that senior JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar will be the chief ministerial candidate of the secular alliance, has been riling the BJP to name its face for the crucial polls.
The JD(U) yesterday also mounted a frontal attack on the BJP on the issue with its state unit chief Bashistha Narayan Singh wondering as to how a political party which cannot even decide on naming its chief ministerial face can go to the electorate with confidence seeking mandate.