“I had no desire to become prime minister. I said the public had given their mandate and anyone can be appointed prime minister, BJP could make their own prime minister,” Nitish said at the JD (U) national executive meeting.
Hours after handing over the reins of the party to his longtime aide Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, Nitish said he was under immense pressure from the coalition to continue as prime minister.
“After the election results came in, I made my wish known to the coalition. But the pressure was so great that I had to get back to work,” Nitish said.
In response to Nitish’s statement, former BJP chief deputy minister and leader Sushil Kumar Modi said on Monday: “He (Nitish) did not want to be the CM. The leaders of the BJP and JD (U) told him that we fought the He polled his name, his vision and said that people had voted for him. In the end, he agreed to become a CM at the request of the JDU, BJP and VIP leaders. ”
Nitish’s statement comes a week after six of the seven JD (U) lawmakers in Arunachal Pradesh defected to their ally BJP.
While Nitish had said the twists and turns in Arunachal Pradesh will not affect the coalition in Bihar, the new president of JD (U), Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, practically issued a strong warning on Sunday to ally with the BJP without taking its name.
Speaking to the media, Sushil Modi showed confidence in JD (U) saying that “the BJP-JD (U) alliance in Bihar is unshakeable”, adding: “The government will work for five years under the leadership of Nitish Kumar.”
After the JD (U) national executive meeting, Singh, popularly known as RCP Singh, said that JD (U) does not fool anyone and that people should not consider his ‘Sanskar’ a weakness.
Currently, Nitish heads the government of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, which is made up of the BJP, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).
In the November assembly elections this year, the NDA won 125 seats in the 243-seat legislative assembly. The BJP won with 74 seats, JD (U) with 43, while two other components of the NDA won eight seats.
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