 "BJP not to project CM candidate in Bihar assembly polls")
The party in-charge for Bihar elections, Union minister Ananth Kumar, on Tuesday said in Patna the party would fight the elections on the plank of its development agendas and leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance currently comprises Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party and is likely to be joined by former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Party.
The BJP in Bihar has several prominent leaders — Sushil Modi, Giriraj Singh, C P Thakur, Nand Kishore Yadav and Kirti Azad. Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajiv Pratap Rudy are also from Bihar.
But none is expected to match Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s image of good governance. Also, announcing a chief ministerial candidate could result in internal bickering between the BJP leaders.
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The opposing camp, comprising Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(United) and the Congress, have already announced that Nitish Kumar would be their chief ministerial face.
Ananth Kumar said the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls would be a contest between the jungle raj of Lalu-Nitish and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development and good governance agendas. He said the people of Bihar would embrace the Prime Minister's agendas and reject Lalu and Nitish.
The BJP hasn’t followed a uniform strategy on projecting chief ministerial candidates in recent Assembly elections. It didn’t project a chief minister in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir polls. It projected Kiran Bedi when faced with Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi — an election it lost badly.