Nitish fit to be PM: Shatrughan

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday created a flutter in the saffron camp when he said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was “PM material.”

Sinha also advised his party not to go the whole hog against “a person who, till last month, was our alliance partner for the last 17 years and has provided Bihar a dynamic leadership.”

Sinha’s remarks come a week after he met Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) at the chief minister’s official residence to enquire after his health,
Sinha’s praise for Nitish has caught the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership unawares. “Nitish Kumar is one of the most able, suitable and capable person who could, and should, be ‘acceptable’ as the prime minister of the country.

If he himself does not want the country’s top executive post, that does not mean he is less competent than others,” Shatrughan Sinha, the Patna Sahib MP, told Deccan Herald.

On his closed-door meeting with Nitish Kumar, Sinha said: “It was not a ‘secret’ meeting. It was a ‘sacred’ meeting, as I had gone there to ask his ‘halchal’ (wellbeing) since he was recuperating from a hair-line fracture in his leg.”

Sinha’s praise assume much significance as last week he, in an oblique reference to Narendra Modi, had publicly said that no body from the National Democratic Alliance could become the prime minister without the blessings of party patriarch L K Advani. The BJP tried to distance itself from the fresh controversy.

“I am not competent enough to take any action against him. Party president Rajnath Singh will take cognizance of his comments,” said senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi when asked whether the party would initiate any disciplinary action against the “rebel” party MP.

Shatrughan Sinha, however, remained unfazed. “Some section of the media has reported that I have been nursing grudges against Narendra Modi as I was left out in the poll panel. But let me clarify once and for all that I don’t hanker for any lollypop post. Such is my ‘kad’ (stature) that I do not need any pad (post),” the actor-turned-politician said.

Elated over Sinha’s comments, Nitish Kumar was quick enough to thank “Bihari Babu” for his “kind words.”