Nitish will return to the anti-NDA front: Raghuvansh Singh

Buoyed by the Shiv Sena-NCP- Congress coalition forming the government in Maharashtra, RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Saturday made a fresh pitch for a rainbow coalition of parties opposed to the BJP in Bihar and reiterated his hope that JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar would "join it dumping the NDA".

The former Union minister asserted that the country was in "poor shape" under the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, blaming controversial measures like demonetization for the economic slowdown, and stressed the need for Bihar "setting an example, as it has done always".

"Bihar will not follow the example of Maharashtra. Rather, it will set an example for the entire country, as it has always done. I believe all parties would come together to defeat the BJP in the assembly elections. And I am firm in my belief that Nitish Kumar will come back", Singh told reporters.

Asked about many leaders of his party, including Tejashwi Yadav whom RJD supremo Lalu Prasad has anointed his political heir, having objections to a realignment with Kumar, Singh who is one of the founding leaders of RJD, said "people disagree with me initially but within six months you may see a change in the mood".

Singh said "Go and speak to any leader individually and privately. All will sound to be in favour of Nitish coming back to us. And he will do so. He will find his reasons to do so. You must not forget that he had snapped his ties with the BJP in 2013 saying the party no longer stood for the principles espoused by Vajpayee and Advani."