PATNA: Rashtriya Lok Janata Party (RLJP) chief and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday said that he would welcome chief minister Nitish Kumar if he returned to the NDA.
“A person is not strong but his time is. He will be welcomed if he returns to the NDA,” Paras remarked when media persons asked over the possibility of Nitish returning to the NDA.
Although Paras's remark has given some credence to the speculation over Nitish joining hands with the BJP once again ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Nitish on Monday made it clear that he would not be going back to NDA and said he was only concentrating on bringing all opposition parties on a single platform.
Earlier, leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly and senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha had replied to a media query on the speculation over Nitish returning to NDA saying the BJP would welcome anybody who was a nationalist, honest and believed in inclusive growth.
Meanwhile, the JD (U) attacked the BJP after the AIADMK walked out of the NDA on Monday. Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had alleged that the BJP was becoming weak and the NDA had virtually lost its relevance.
Senior JD (U) leader and state parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary also targeted the NDA after the AIADMK snapped ties with the BJP. He said that all right-thinking parties would gradually leave the BJP and walk out of the NDA.
He contended that any sensitive party and leader who was watching the situation of the country could well understand that the BJP was only a party of sloganeering and gimmickry.
JD (U) leader Chaudhary said that the state government was doing as much work as possible as benefits of various schemes were reaching people of the state. He alleged that the central government was not doing that work.
On increasing the number of constituents of the Opposition bloc, ‘INDIA’, the minister said that the present constituents of the opposition alliance were capable of ousting the BJP from power and if more parties joined the alliance, they were welcome.