Nitish Kumar (L) and Giriraj Singh
Credit: PTI Photos
Ending months of speculations and putting a lid on uncertainty about who would be the chief ministerial candidate of the NDA if the ruling alliance wins yet another term, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh said “Nitish Kumar is the NDA’s face for the Chief Minister’s post for the ensuing Assembly polls.”
Discounting any differences within the alliance partners, Giriraj said, “There is no rift within the NDA. Seat-sharing talks are going on in the right direction and a formal announcement in this regard will be made soon.”
This is the first time in recent times any senior BJP leader has openly backed Nitish as the CM face for the ensuing polls, given his poor health condition.
“Instead of looking at any rift within the NDA, you should look at the Mahagatbandhan, where the Congress has said that Tejashwi is the CM face of the RJD, not that of the Mahagatbandhan. The Opposition remains a divided house where the allies of the RJD are extracting their pound of flesh in the name of backing Tejashwi as CM,” Giriraj told a section of newsmen here.
Both the NDA and the INDIA bloc remain stuck in the name of seat sharing with Chirag Paswan in the NDA and the VIP chief Mukesh Sahni in Mahagatbandhan expressing their strong displeasure over being offered miniscule number of seats.
Discordant Note
On Wednesday, another NDA ally - Union Minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi - joined the “unhappy bandwagon” and quoted veteran Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s poem from ‘Rashmi Rathi’ wherein he said: “Do nyay agar toh aadha do, parr usme bhi koi baadha ho, toh de do kewal 15 gram, rakho apne dharti tamam” (translated, this meaningful poem means: If you do justice, then give us half. If not, then give us only 15 villages and keep the rest with you).
Manjhi has said that he wanted to expand his party’s base by contesting half of the 243 seats but will be happy enough even if he is allotted 15 seats.
The NDA has, in principle, decided that JD (U) and BJP would contest 103 and 102 seats respectively, thereby leaving 38 seats for the three allies. “Chirag will be offered 20 seats, while Manjhi and Upendra Kushawaha 10 and eight seats respectively,” said an NDA source on the condition of anonymity.