Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumartoday endorsed BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad's view that thenominee for the prime minister's post should be from the majorparty within NDA and said he did not even dream of the office.
"I myself have been saying the same thing for long ....
Ravishankar Prasad has said the same thing," Kumar toldreporters when asked to comment on the Rajya Sabha leaderstatement on the candidate for the PM post.
Kumar, under whose leadership NDA won 33 of the 40 LokSabha seats in Bihar and confined RJD to merely four in thelast General elections, said he had been repeatedly sayingthat "PM candidate should be from the largest party of thealliance."
The chief minister said he was happy working for thepeople of Bihar and did not dream of becoming PM.
When told that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,considered a strong contender for the PM post from NDA, alsosaid that he was happy working for the state, Kumar refused tocomment.
He disagreed with the comments of Delhi Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit that Rs 600, to be given under cash subsidytransfer scheme, were sufficient to feed five members of afamily in a month.
"It is impossible to feed five members of a family in Rs600 a month that will come down to Rs 4 per person daily," hesaid after attending the "Janata Ke Darbar me Mukhya Mantri"programme here.
He backed cash transfer, but said the scheme claimed bythe UPA as "game-changer" in 2014 polls would succeed onlywhen beneficiaries were correctly identified by constitutingan independent BPL Commission.
Asked to comment on Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's view that cash subsidy would help the UPA governmentin the 2014 General elections, Kumar said only time wouldprove it.
Kumar pointed out major gaps in the Centre's count of BPLbeneficiaries in Bihar and elsewhere which was a major hurdlein implementation of subsidised foodgrains scheme through PDS.
"In Bihar while the Centre provides subsidised foodgrainsfor about 72 lakh BPL beneficiaries, the actual count asconducted by the state government by adopting the centralcriterion comes to 1.40 crore," he said to drive home hispoint.
Picking holes in the cash subsidy scheme, Kumar said itrecommended purchase of uniform for school children through acommittee which would be a major problem in Bihar as the stategovernment was successfully providing direct cash for thepurpose.
"I have pointed it out to the PM and shall raise itprominently in the coming meeting of NDC (National DevelopmentCouncil)," he said.
He took exception to the Industry and Commerce MinisterAnand Sharma ruling out special category status to Bihar andsaid he had written to the Prime Minister directly contestingthe argument of the Inter-Ministerial Group constituted by himon the issue and did not give much credence to what Sharmasaid.
"I have not put this demand to the Industries ministerso what he says does not make much difference," he said.
Kumar said he would mobilise support of other states whichfell short in major developmental indices as compared tonational average for strategic plan for them.
He, however, ruled out forming any front (of suchstates) for this purpose.