Paswan to accept BJP’s choice for Bihar Chief Minister

The Lok Janshakti Party will accept the BJP’s choice for Bihar Chief Minister after the Assembly elections, its president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said here on Monday.

“We’ll accept whoever the BJP announces as Chief Minister candidate. The NDA will win the elections with a two-thirds majority,” he said, denying any rift in the coalition over seat-sharing.

“All the three NDA constituents — the BJP, the LJP and the RLSP — will sit down and decide on the allocation of seats. However, our first priority is to win all seats we contest,” he said.

Pointing to the confusion over the merger of the Janata Parivar parties, Mr. Paswan said: “I’ve always been saying it is not a merger of parties but that of sticks. Now, see what is happening among them… They have started wielding their sticks against each other.”

Furthermore, no one in the Janata Parivar was willing to accept Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as leader, Mr. Paswan said.

“The statements by RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and others vindicate my stand.” He was referring to the statement of Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, RJD vice-president, that on the basis of the Lok Sabha poll performance, his party would contest 145 seats. This prompted Mr. Nitish Kumar to say that the JD(U) could contest all the 243 seats.