Nitish Kumar is Janata Parivar's Bihar CM pick

Lalu proposes, Mulayam announces

The Janata Parivar finally announced Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the RJD-JD(U) alliance in Bihar for the coming Assembly polls, and vowed to defeat the “communal BJP”.

Janata Parivar president and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday made this announcement in the presence of Lalu Prasad, who had hitherto been opposed to projecting Nitish as the combine's chief ministerial candidate. Prasad called the decision the “need of the hour”.

The issue, which had become the biggest hindrance in formalising an alliance between the two parties, was resolved by great efforts from leaders like Mulayam and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav.

“Nitish Kumar will be our chief ministerial candidate in Bihar. Rahul, me, Laluji and Sharadji will join in campaigning. We have been defeating the communal forces since the days of the Ayodhya agitation, and will do it again,” said Mulayam.

He thanked Lalu for proposing Nitish’s name for the post. The SP chief said senior leaders would help decide the seat shares between the two parties.

The RJD chief, who accepted the decision only after tremendous pressure from both inside and outside the party, including the Congress and the SP, said he was “ready to drink poison to crush the cobra of communalism”.

Lalu said though he and Nitish had been fighting, they belong to the same political family. Lalu had snubbed senior leaders from his party, including former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, for opposing Nitish as the chief ministerial candidate, advising them to hold their tongue.

He also said no member of his family, including his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, was in the race for the chief minister's post.

“We socialists have fought all the important battles, right from the Quit India movement in 1942 to the emergency and the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations,” said JD-U chief Sharad Yadav.

Meanwhile, the CPM on Monday clarified that it had decided to contest the Bihar election with the Left parties, said general secretary Sitaram Yechury after the meeting of the party’s Central Committee.

He told reporters strengthening the Left was the party’s priority.

In another development, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has decided to campaign for Nitish Kumar.