- Nitish Kumar will lead NDA to a record victory in next month’s Bihar election, the Prime Minister said
- The PM did not say, though, that the Janata Dal United boss will stay as Chief Minister if the NDA wins
- The opposition alliance has named RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav its chief ministerial candidate
The National Democratic Alliance, under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, will break all records and win next month's Bihar Assembly election by a massive margin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday afternoon, invoking the Chief Minister and Janata Dal United boss' popular 'sushasan babu' moniker.
"Entire Bihar is saying 'phir ek baar NDA sarkar... phir ek baar sushasan sarkar'," the Prime Minister said, kickstarting the bloc's Bihar election campaign from the town of Samastipur.
This is the first time the Prime Minister has spoken of contesting the election with Nitish as the face of the campaign, although it does not follow he will return as Chief Minister if the BJP-JDU retain power.
It also followed a sharp jibe by the Mahagathbandhan alliance over the Bharatiya Janata Party's apparent reluctance to name a chief ministerial candidate, as it has. The opposition bloc on Thursday confirmed Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav as its presumptive Chief Minister.
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And, as it did so, the opposition took a shot at the NDA; "I want to ask Amit Shah... our leader is Tejashwi Yadav. Now they should confirm who is their Chief Minister face," Ashok Gehlot, who had been rushed to Bihar to resolve leadership issues between his party and the RJD, said.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav is the opposition's chief ministerial candidate (File).
Yadav, who twice served as deputy to Nitish Kumar, also weighed in, and claimed a remark by Home Minister Amit Shah last week - that NDA leaders will 'sit together and decide' on the new chief minister if the alliance wins the election - indicated Nitish Kumar's days are numbered.
The JDU boss' future has been the subject of speculation in the build-up to this election, with the opposition taunting him over his allies dithering over formally naming him its leader.
Earlier this month Yadav also questioned Nitish Kumar's mental health and fitness after a video of him greeting the Prime Minister - apparently repeatedly - was widely shared online.
The JDU, meanwhile, has repeatedly said it expects Nitish - already Bihar's longest-serving chief minister - to remain in that role.
In April, even as buzz over his future in the job began, the party put up large posters across Patna insisting Nitish Kumar would continue till 2030, when he will be 79 years old.
Those posters followed a remark by BJP leader Nayab Singh Saini, the Haryana Chief Minister, about the saffron party winning this election "under the leadership of Samrat Choudhary".
Choudhary is currently one of Bihar's two deputy chief ministers.
Meanwhile, the PM also praised the BJP for development work in Bihar over the past five years, declaring, "There is not a single corner where the BJP isn't carrying out development work."
"Bihar is now an attractive investment destination. I foresee a future in which every district will be teeming with local start-ups... all this would not have been possible had there been 'jungle raj' in Bihar," he intoned, in one of several swipes at the RJD of ex-Chief Minister Lalu Yadav.
Bihar will vote in two phases; the first is on November 6 and the second on November 11.
Results will be declared on November 14.
