Patna: Ending speculations Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday said that the BJP and JD(U) will contest the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar.
“Some political parties have been trying to create confusion about the unity of NDA in Bihar. I want to end all rumours by declaring that the NDA will contest the Assembly elections under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar. The NDA in Bihar is united and the BJP –JD(U) alliance is unbreakable,” Mr Shah said at a rally in Vaishali.
Sources said that Mr Shah’s statement will silence those who have been raising questions about Mr Kumar leadership. Crisis deepened recently when dalit leader and BJP MLC Sanjay Paswan said, “The party has the capability to contest and win elections in Bihar on its own. People want a BJP leader becoming the chief minister”.
Mr Kumar has been NDA’s face in Bihar since 2005. In 2013, he had walked out of the NDA over the elevation of Narendra Modi, then Gujarat CM, as the prime ministerial candidate.
In the 2015 Assembly elections, his party JD(U), along with the RJD and Congress, had formed a grand alliance and defeated the BJP with a huge margin. However, in July 2017 after the CBI registered corruption cases against RJD chief Lalu Yadav and his son Tejashwi, he returned to the NDA and formed a government with the support of the BJP.
Mr Shah was in Vaishali to create awareness among the masses about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Using the occasion to accuse the Congress, RJD and other Opposition parties of misleading people about the CAA, he said, “The Act is about granting citizenship to minorities who were persecuted in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. I am here to tell leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Lalu Yadav not to mislead people about the act.”
“The Opposition’s effort to mislead people and spoil the atmosphere will not work as the BJP has decided to hold rallies and create awareness about the Citizenship Act,” he added.
