Daijiworld Media Network - Patna

Patna, Sep 19: Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Friday said his predecessor and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar had stepped down from the chief minister's post voluntarily and that the BJP had not asked him to resign. Choudhary also said Kumar, now a Rajya Sabha MP, remained the NDA's undisputed leader in Bihar.

Speaking at an event organised by a media group in Patna, Choudhary said Kumar had acknowledged that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had allowed him to become chief minister for the first time when the BJP had more MLAs than his party, and that he wanted to reciprocate the gesture.

The reference was to 2000, when the Bihar Assembly election produced a hung House. Kumar, whose party was then known as the Samata Party, became chief minister but resigned within a week after the NDA failed to secure a majority.

Choudhary also highlighted what he described as the BJP's support for Kumar over the years. He said RJD president Lalu Prasad too had benefited from BJP support when he became Bihar chief minister in 1990.

Prasad was then in the Janata Dal, which formed the government with outside support from the BJP. Dalit leader Ram Sundar Das was also in the race for the chief minister's post but lost the legislative party leadership election to Prasad by a narrow margin.

Choudhary also responded to criticism from RJD working president and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who had described him as a "selected, and not elected" chief minister.

Without naming Yadav, Choudhary said his mother Rabri Devi had also not been elected by the people when she first became chief minister and that the RJD had not announced beforehand that she would be made deputy chief minister.

Asked whether he expected to remain chief minister until the next Assembly election in 2030, Choudhary said he was focused on his responsibilities and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar for his political standing.

Choudhary said his priorities were law and order, education and improving revenue generation through industrialisation. He also said the state government was effectively handling the ongoing floods with assistance from the Centre and was working on long-term measures, including river interlinking.