Bihar polls: Lalu announces Nitish as CM candidate

BJP searches for silver lining in Bihar as Janata Parivar consolidates vote bank

Incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the choice to again hold that job for the proposed alliance of his Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, in the coming Bihar legislative assembly polls.

The Congress, particularly its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, played a key part in the development that made RJD chief Lalu Prasad, also a former Bihar CM, announce on Monday that his former arch enemy would indeed be their candidate for the top job.

Kumar had met Gandhi on Sunday afternoon for a little over an hour, to discuss an alliance. It was a meeting not entirely to the liking of either Prasad or Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav but went a long way in persuading the former to announce Kumar as the CM candidate. According to sources, Prasad had hoped to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday but this didn’t come about.

Prasad made the announcement while flanked by Mulayam Singh and JD (U) president Sharad Yadav. He said he himself could not contest elections due to the fact that he was out on bail while his appeal in the fodder scam conviction is being heard. His children were too young to take on the mantle. “I am ready to consume all kinds of poison,” Prasad said about his objective to defeat ‘communal forces’, indicating he wasn't quite happy with the development.

In this regard, Prasad made a point of requesting leaders and workers of his party to exercise restraint in making public statements and to accept Kumar as their CM candidate. And, he also said he would not have any truck with Jitan Ram Manjhi, the CM for a few months between Kumar’s earlier and present tenure in office.



A Congress senior from the state claimed the “pressure tactics” adopted by his party, also throwing its weight behind Kumar, had worked. In Patna, the latter defended his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, who, he said, had emerged in a leadership role within his party and would play a key role in deciding the Congress’ political lines.

On Sunday, the RJD and JD (U) had agreed to form a committee of three members each to discuss seat sharing for the 243 seats at stake. The Congress has demanded 50 but its claims are weak, as it won only four seats in the 2010 elections. Kumar’s JD (U) currently has 115 seats, secured when in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2010.

Prasad, with claims of his ‘Muslim-Yadav’ support solidly behind his party, will expect an equitable seat sharing formula after having conceded the CM candidature to Kumar while the Congress and JD (U) might try squeezing him further.

In Patna, Nitish also denied that he lured away key strategist of the Narendra Modi camp to his side. He said that Prashan Kishor, who had worked with Modi during the Lok Sabha elections, had himself "expressed desire" to work with him.