Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday condemned BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur for calling Nathuram Godse a "patriot", asserting that his party JD(U), an ally of BJP, will not tolerate any remark in support of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin.
"It is condemnable, we don't agree with such views. Mahatma Gandhi is the father of the nation. Suspending her from the party is their own matter. Giving a reaction or taking action is an internal matter of their party. As much as we are concerned, we will not tolerate this kind of view," he told reporters here after casting his vote for the Lok Sabha polls.
Demanding that elections should be held in two or three phases instead of such a long period, Kumar said he will be working to create a consensus among political parties on the issue.
"Based on my experience, I believe that an all-party meeting should take place on the issue of poll duration. It is not right to have a long campaign period in such hot weather. In our country, polls should be held in February-March or October-November and they should not be in so many phases," he said.
"Elections should happen in fewer phases as far as possible. This will also help people. There is no need of conducting elections in so many phases. Ideally, elections should be carried out in one phase but the country is big so there may be two-three phases," the Chief Minister said.
Kumar said he has fought this election on the basis of his work and hoped that the NDA will the government again under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Article 370 of the Constitution giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and common civil code, the JD(U) chief said, "Under no circumstances, we will support of the removal of Article 370. We will not accept a common civil code. We believe that the Ayodhya issue should be sorted out either in court or through mutual discussion.
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