Patna, Sep 19: Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has said that former Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar stepped down from the post voluntarily and was not asked by the BJP to resign.
Speaking at an event organised by a leading media group in Patna on Friday, Choudhary also described Kumar, who is now a Rajya Sabha MP, as the NDA’s “undisputed leader” in Bihar.
Choudhary said Nitish Kumar had acknowledged that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had allowed him to become Chief Minister in 2000 despite the BJP having more MLAs than his party at the time. According to Choudhary, Kumar wanted to reciprocate that gesture by voluntarily giving up the post.
Recalling the 2000 Assembly elections, Choudhary noted that the polls had produced a hung Assembly. Nitish Kumar, then heading the Samata Party, briefly became Chief Minister but resigned within a week after the NDA failed to secure a majority.
Choudhary also took a dig at RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his political family, claiming that the BJP and NDA had played a role in the rise of several leaders in Bihar. He pointed out that he himself had begun his political career as a minister in the Rabri Devi government.
Responding to criticism from RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who had described him as a “selected, and not elected” Chief Minister, Choudhary said Rabri Devi too had not been elected by the people when she first became Chief Minister.
Choudhary, who became Chief Minister after serving twice as Deputy Chief Minister and BJP state president, avoided directly answering whether he expected to remain in office until the 2030 Assembly elections.
“I am a small leader who owes his standing to the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar,” he said, adding that the BJP had given him several opportunities, including the Home portfolio, which had earlier remained with the Chief Minister.
Choudhary said his government’s priorities were maintaining law and order, improving education and increasing state revenue through industrialisation.
On the ongoing floods in Bihar, he said the state government was effectively managing the situation with assistance from the Centre. He also said the government was working on long-term measures, including the inter-linking of rivers, to address the state’s recurring flood problems. (PTI)
