New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be the chief ministerial candidate for Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance for the state Assembly elections due in September-October this year. The decision to project Nitish Kumar as the CM candidate was taken after the Bihar Chief Minister and Lalu met Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav at his residence in Delhi on Monday.
Mulayam thanked Lalu for proposing the name of Nitish Kumar as the CM candidate of the JDU-RJD alliance. Lalu announced that the main aim of his party is to ensure consolidation of anti-Bharatiya Janata Party votes.
"I cannot contest, no one from my family or RJD family is interested in chief ministership. We didn't want saffron brigade to take advantage. Under Mulayam Singh's leadership Nitish Kumar has been named as the CM candidate," announced Lalu.
While admitting that he and Nitish had gone their separate ways after being together for a few years, Lalu said they are one platform once again to stop the BJP.
Sources said that Lalu had to give in after Nitish had a meeting with Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday and he had last week threatened to pull out of proposed RJD-JDU alliance.
With reports suggesting that the BJP is unlikely to project a chief ministerial candidate, projecting Nitish as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance can be an advantage for it.
Even though there has been no announcement on the seat sharing, Nitish also confirmed that Congress, JDU and RJD will fight elections together.
Nitish's candidature has Congress's support as well. Sources said Rahul and a sizeable section of the state Congress leaders have preferred Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face of a secular alliance in state Assembly polls.
Under one of the seat-sharing formulae that is being discussed, both RJD and JDU could contest 100 seats each while 43 could be left for Congress, CPI-M, CPI and the NCP. Bihar Assembly has 243 seats.
In the last Assembly elections in 2010, JDU won 115 seats, BJP 91, RJD 22, Congress 4, and Others 11.
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