Saturday, Oct 05, 2013

Patna: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has got a new competitor in Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar!

Days after Modi was formally named as Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime minister face for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Janata Dal -United (JD-U) in Bihar too has silently projected Nitish Kumar as party’s prime minister candidate and has begun strongly campaigning for him across the state.

The JD-U says India urgently needs a development-oriented politician like Nitish Kumar. It’s contention is that India too will script a new success story and shine at the global level under him, the way Kumar shaped the future of Bihar through his development model.

At the district conferences of the JD-U currently being held across the state, the party leaders have been urging the voters to get united and help the JD-U win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar to ensure Kumar becomes the “next Prime Minister of India.”

Strangely, Kumar is yet to contradict he is not in the race for the top job although leaders after leaders have been campaigning for him for the last over a fortnight. Previously, he had instantly come out with the rebuttal whenever the party men described him as the PM candidate. But this time, he is silent.

“Bihar has changed a lot after Nitish Kumar became the chief minister. Now, we all need to make him the Prime Minister of India to change the face of the nation,” Bihar Information and Public Relations Department minister Brishen Patel told a conference of party workers in Vaishali district on Friday. Patel who is considered No. 2 man in the Nitish Kumar cabinet further asked the workers to clinch victory on all the 40 Lok Sabha seats of state which he said would strengthen the case of Bihar chief minister.

The same appeal was made to the party men at the district convention of JD-U in Banka district on September 29.

“We need to win all the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar as only then Kumar could become the prime minister,” said Patel.

In Bhojpur district, the party parliamentarian Meena Singh moved the same appeal saying everyone now wanted to see Kumar as the PM.

A day earlier, during the workers’ convention held in Khagaria district, the leaders made the same pitch.

“Bihar which was once a ‘basket case’ has now emerged as the development model in the country,” said minister Patel alleging the BJP hurriedly named Modi as its PM candidate since it felt threat from Kumar who fast emerged as a powerful force in the country and whose name was being debated for the top post in the international media.

Curiously, Bihar has a total of only 40 Lok Sabha seats which, observers say, will not be quite helpful in putting Kumar in the race for the PM. But the JD-U leaders are banking on different political calculations. According to them, the next Lok Sabha polls will apparently throw up a fractured mandate and in that case, Kumar may have the better chance to bargain for the top post and eventually see his dream coming true, the way JD-U (Secular) leader H.D. Devegowda and Janata Dal leader I.K. Gujral were able to become the prime ministers in the Janata Dal-led United Front government at the centre in the 90’s although their governments last for a brief period.

By Lata Rani |?Correspondent

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