Bihar elections: BJP panel puts stamp on Nitish’s name as CM face

The two-day meeting of Bihar BJP committee held at Surajkund in Haryana has reiterated that NDA would contest 2025 assembly elections in state under the leadership of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, BJP state president Dilip Jaiswal made it clear that the assembly elections in Bihar would be fought under Nitish Kumar only. With this, the speculation going on for the last few days also came to an end.

“The Core committee unanimously accepted that we would be contesting elections under Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Jaiswal and ruled out that there was no question of any other scenario emerging. “Nitish Kumar is our face and there is going to be no change,” said Jaiswal.

Jaiswal’s announcement was seconded by Union minister Giriraj Singh and Bihar BJP minister Prem Kumar. “Nitish Kumar is our leader and will remain our leader. There is no confusion,” said Singh. “He (Nitish Kumar) was, is and will remain the CM face. All five alliance partners are unanimous on this,” said Bihar minister Prem Kumar.

Earlier in the day, NDA alliance partner, HAM-S, during its national executive held in New Delhi, also backed Kumar’s candidature. “NDA will contest 2025 polls under Nitish Kumar,” said Union minister and HAM-S leader Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The confusion over Kumar’s leadership came during a recent interview of Union minister Amit Shah to a news channel in which he was asked whether the NDA could go to polls in Bihar without declaring a chief ministerial candidate, like it recently did with great success in Maharashtra.

Shah, a former BJP president who is still regarded as the party’s principal strategist, had replied after a pause, “We will sit together and decide. We will let you know after we have taken a decision.” The cryptic response had led to furious speculations that the BJP could insist on not projecting Kumar, who had been leading Bihar’s NDA charge for close to a couple of decades, in the 2025 assembly polls.

The BJP core committee meeting, which was attended by all the 31 members, discussed organisational issues, roadmap for assembly polls and joint meeting of NDA workers to begin from January 15.

“It was an important meeting held in five sessions which was attended by B L Santosh, Vinod tawde and other leaders. We have convened state board meeting in second week of January and in view of assembly polls, organisational works were discussed threadbare. Besides, the NDA workers’s meeting and better co-ordination with allies was also discussed,” said Jaiswal.

According to party leaders, the BJP would make development as its main agenda. According to leaders familiar with development, the NDA parties would enter the elections by making the work of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its main weapon. A BJP leader said that the parties included in the NDA are planning to take the works of the central and state governments to every village and every house by running a joint programme.

“We have a lot to say about development and we will contest the elections on the issue of development,” said BJP spokesperson and former MLA Manoj Sharma. Meanwhile, JD-U has also sent Karpoori Rath and Nari Shakti Rath from the state office to every village of the state and spread the achievements of Nitish government and make the voters aware.