Nitish Kumar hosts NDA meeting to boost coordination for Bihar polls

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday convened a meeting of the ruling NDA in the state to ensure better coordination among alliance partners in the run-up to assembly polls due next year.

Leaders of JD(U), BJP and smaller partners Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Hindustani Awam Morcha thronged the chief minister's 1, Anne Marg residence for the meeting.

"Our party leader has been asserting that the NDA will win 200 plus seats of the 243-strong House. For that perfect synergy among constituents is a must. Today's meeting has been called for that purpose," Ashok Choudhary, state minister and JD(U) national general secretary, said.

State BJP president Dilip Jaiswal concurred, "A fine coordination saw us through the Lok Sabha polls this year. Carrying it forward will help us secure a two-thirds majority in the assembly elections."  Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) state president Raju Tiwari said that "2020 is a thing of the past", when asked about the revolt of its leader, and now a Union minister, Chirag Paswan which had badly hit the JD(U), causing the NDA to barely scrape through.

"The meeting, called at a time when elections are several months away, will send across a positive message to cadres who will get battle-ready," he added.

Similar sentiments were expressed by former Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha, who heads Rashtriya Lok Morcha, and state minister Santosh Suman, the national president of Hindustani Awam Morcha founded by his father and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.