Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar speaks to NDTV
, the chief minister of Bihar, today told NDTV that he is a far more worthy contender for prime minister than "others." Without naming his political rival,
Narendra Modi - a strategy he has perfected in months of attacks on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate - Mr Kumar demolished the BJP leader's credentials. (
Nitish Kumar begins campaign with attack on BJP)
"The people who are roaming around today as candidates for PM, do they have any experience like me? People who aspire to lead parliament, do they have any experience in parliament?"
Mr Modi has never contested a parliamentary election; he is a member of the Gujarat legislature.
Mr Kumar, 63, has repeatedly said he has no interest in running for prime minister, and that he is committed to his work in Bihar, where he is now in his second term. He won the elections there in 2005 and 2010 in alliance with the BJP. but a few months ago, when the party picked Mr Modi to lead its national campaign, Mr Kumar truncated the 17-year alliance, stating that he could not support the ascension of a leader who is not secular. (
'BJP will get nothing in Bihar' says Nitish)
Mr Kumar, like other detractors of Mr Modi, says the BJP leader did not do enough to stop the Gujarat riots of 2002, in which over a thousand people were killed, most of them Muslims. A Supreme Court inquiry has said there is no evidence of those charges.
That hasn't forced a re-think for Mr Kumar. "It's clear that the 2002 riots were the cause of the NDA's demise in 2004," he said, referring to the national coalition led by the BJP that he belonged to till June last year.
Mr Kumar's critics point out that when the riots took place, he was a cabinet minister and registered no protest. "I was in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet in 2002, not in the Gujarat chief minister's cabinet.....so why should I have resigned?" he said defiantly today.