Published 12:05 IST, September 11th 2019
Bihar Dy CM supports Nitish Kumar as NDA CM face, deletes tweet later
A day after Bihar BJP MLC said Nitish Kumar should not be chief ministerial face for 2020 state polls, deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi rebuffed his claims.
A day after BJP MLC from Bihar said that BJP should have its own chief ministerial face for the upcoming assembly polls, deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi rebuffed his statements. Taking to Twitter, BJP's Sushil Modi said that spoke in support of Bihar CM and JDU chief Nitish Kumar. In a now deleted tweet, he said that Kumar will be the 'captain of Bihar NDA in the assembly polls too.' In direct contrast to what his BJP colleague Sanjay Paswan had said a day earlier, the deputy CM said that Nitish is successfully defeating the rivals so there is no need of a new face. he, however, deleted the tweet later raising speculations of internal tussle in the NDA.
BJP MLC Sanjay Paswan has said on Monday that BJP leader should be made the next Chief Minister of Bihar. Clarifying that he is not demeaning or disrespecting the JD(U), he went on to ask Nitish Kumar to move to politics in the Centre and leave the state politics to the BJP. He claimed that the NDA gets the vote in name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the chief ministerial candidate should also be a BJP leader. However, his comments seem to have gone wrong with the Deputy CM as evident by his tweet. Nevertheless, sources said that due to internal pressure and tussle between the JDU and the BJP, he deleted his tweet a few minutes later. Below is a screenshot of Sushil Modi's tweet:
Precursor to Bihar assembly elections
A slogan war has begun in the Bihar as a precursor to upcoming assembly election in 2020. The 2020 Bihar election campaign slogan of the JD(U) was spotted on various banners outside the JD(U) head office a few days ago. The slogan read - Kyun Kare Vichar, Thikke toh hai Nitish Kumar." (Why to think, Nitish Kumar is fine.) The RJD took it as an opportunity to slam Nitish Kumar saying that JD(U) has accepted its defeat by calling Nitish Kumar fine (thikke) and not good. As RJD blew its criticism quoting another slogan "Kyun na kare vichar, Bihar jo hai bimar" (Why should we not think when Bihar is ill), the JD(U) changed its slogan. Now the new slogan of the the party reads - Kyu kare vichaar jab hai hi Nitish Kumar (Why to think when we have Nitish Kumar.)
Bihar assembly elections
With a total of 243 seats in Bihar assembly, the state goes to polls in the upcoming year. While the ruling alliance of JD(U) and BJP are reportedly having internal tussles, the Opposition alliance - the Mahagathbandhan appears to be directionless after the massive poll drubbing in the general elections 2019. Lalu Yadav's party failed to open its account in the general elections and Nitish Kumar is facing anti-incumbency. With JD(U) VP's strategy team working with Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Nitish Kumar speaking against the BJP on various issues and the repeated invitations by the RJD to Kumar for rejoining the Mahagathbandhan, the poll-season in Bihar piques interest.
Updated 13:43 IST, September 11th 2019