Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies will contest the Bihar Assembly elections under the leadership of JDU President Nitish Kumar. He also said that the decision on who will lead the next government will be taken by the elected MLAs after the elections.
Bihar elections: NDA will fight under the leadership of Nitish
Describing Nitish Kumar as a prominent socialist leader of Indian politics, Shah said the Janata Dal United (JDU) president’s politics has always been anti-Congress and he was a prominent leader of the JP movement and had fought against the Congress during the Emergency.Voting for the 243-member Bihar Assembly will be held in two phases on November 6 and November 11 and the counting of votes will take place on November 14.
Elections under the leadership of Nitish, decision on CM post will be taken later!
Shah claimed that when the results will be declared on November 14, NDA will break all the old records. The Home Minister said, “I am not going to decide whether Nitish Kumar will become the Chief Minister or not.” At present we are contesting the elections under his leadership. After the elections, all the allies will sit and choose their leader.” Shah said, “After the 2020 assembly elections, Nitish Kumar himself had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi that since BJP has more seats, it should also be the Chief Minister.” He said, “But we always respected our alliance and made Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister on the basis of his seniority and respect.”
To a question on Nitish Kumar’s record of frequent switching sides, Shah said he has been with the Congress for barely two and a half years, while his political career began with anti-Congress protests, with the JP movement of 1974, which later transformed into a nationwide movement against Indira Gandhi and ultimately led to the imposition of Emergency. Responding to the opposition’s allegations regarding Nitish Kumar’s health and behaviour, Shah said he has had many long conversations with the chief minister, whether face-to-face or over the phone, but never noticed any abnormality.
He said, “Some problems are natural due to age, but the state is run not only by the Chief Minister but by his entire team.” During this, Shah also made a sharp attack on the Grand Alliance. He said that the people of Bihar remember the reign of Lalu Prasad Yadav very well and do not want that era to return, no matter how much times have changed. Taking aim at the Congress, the Home Minister said, “Congress always tries to humiliate its smaller allies. By making others look small, she herself has become small.
He said that due to this arrogance, Congress has lost its support base from Bihar to Bengal. Shah said that the weakness of the opposition can never be the strength of the NDA, as it always contests elections on the strength of its popularity and leadership. He said that NDA will give its best performance in Bihar elections this time. On a question about Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list in Bihar, Shah said that this is not the first time that such an exercise is being done in the country. He said that this had also happened during the tenure of Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
On Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s opposition to SIR, Shah said that perhaps he is not aware of it. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has promised that if the ‘grand alliance’ government led by him is formed, then one member of every family in Bihar will be given a government job. On being asked about this, the Union Home Minister said that to provide jobs to such a large number of people, about Rs 12 lakh crore would be required, whereas the budget of Bihar is about Rs 3.25 lakh crore.
Shah said, “Tejashwi Yadav should also tell from where he will arrange Rs 12 lakh crore. This is a baseless promise, a white lie told to the youth of Bihar to get votes.” On the issue of infiltration in Bihar, Shah said that the next NDA government will first detect the infiltrators, remove their names from the voter list and then deport them.