Modi will be PM again in May 2019: Nitish

In what could be music to BJP ears, Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asserted that no one can stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister again in May 2019.

“Those who are analysing the situation based on the defeat of BJP in the three Assembly elections in Hindi heartland should keep in mind that BJP got 0.1 per cent votes more than the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Besides, the BJP secured marginally less votes than the Congress in Rajasthan,” said Nitish, reiterating that the Mahagatbandhan of Opposition parties was not competent enough to unseat Narendra Modi.

“Mahagatbandhan mein koi dum nahin hai. (Mahagatbandhan is not a force to reckon with),” said Nitish, who has already extracted his pound of flesh from the BJP by getting a commitment to contest 17 seats out of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar. Of the remaining seats, the BJP will contest 17 while Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP six seats.

DISCORDANT NOTES

Nitish, however, struck a discordant note with his alliance partner BJP on two issues: Triple talaq and Ram Mandir. “Since triple talaq is a sensitive issue, no law should be framed in a hasty manner without taking that particular religious group (read: Muslims) into confidence,” said Nitish, soon after concluding his Lok Samvad (Public interface) programme here on Monday.

“On the Ram Mandir issue, we have been maintaining the same stand since 1996 that either we should wait for the court verdict or a solution should be found through mutual talks,” said Nitish, reiterating that he would not ever compromise with three Cs: crime, corruption and communalism.

His assertions came shortly before Centre doled out largesse in the form of ten per cent reservations for the economically poor upper castes.