BJP downplays JD-U neta’s pitch for ‘President Nitish’
PATNA: Political weather in Bihar has heated up yet again after a senior JD-U minister made a call for naming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the Presidential candidate. Alliance partner BJP, however, downplayed it.
JD-U minister Shravan Kumar kick-started the debate by saying Nitish should be made the Presidential candidate as “he has all the abilities to assume the top constitutional post”. “Nitish is not in the race for the top post but everybody wants to see him as the President. He will be a better Presidential candidate and will also hold the responsibility well,” he added.
“Nitish ji possesses all qualities to become Rashtrapati,” he asserted. The minister also claimed that Nitish has a “large vision on national and international issues”. “Every Bihari will be happy to have Nitish Kumar as the next President,” he added.
The saffron camp, meanwhile, downplayed the JD-U leader’s statement. “When the presidential candidate would be declared formally, I would react,” firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh told reporters in Muzaffarpur.
In the same vein, senior Bihar BJP minister Ramsurat Kumar said the matter will be settled when the name is announced. “In democratic set-up, everybody has the right to contest elections,” Kumar, state’s revenue minister, said. In the past two occasions, Nitish had sprang surprises during the Presidential elections.