Nitish Kumar stands by snub to Narendra Modi as PM, JD-U backs him

PTI

Patna/New Delhi, 19 Jun 2012: "Golden words are not repeated," said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar here this evening when mediapersons requested him to clarify his advocacy of a secular person as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate in the next general elections.

 

His cryptic reply came when asked to elaborate the five conditions that he had outlined for selection of the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections.

 

"It was an interview to The Economic Times. I don’t need to give an interview again," Kumar said ignoring to a volley of questions by the media after emerging from a cabinet meeting.

 

’Secular credentials’

Even as Narendra Modi is being projected as a prospective candidate of BJP for the post of Prime Minister, JD-U leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has put a spanner by saying that NDA’s nominee for the top post should be somebody with "secular credentials".

 

Significantly, his views were echoed today by BJP leader and Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who said the coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate should be "acceptable to all sections of the society."

 

Kumar noted that India is a multi-religious and multi-lingual country and its "leader should not have rough edges in his personality".

 

He emphasised that NDA will have to declare its candidate well ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2014 so that the electorate knows who they are voting for but insisted that he was not aspiring for the Prime Ministership.

 

"The NDA should have a leader who can feel for the underdeveloped states like Bihar ... This leader should be acceptable to every constituent of the alliance. To me, the leader of the coalition should have secular credentials," Kumar told The Economic Times.

 

"It (NDA leader) should not be someone who can develop developed states, but who has a feel for underdeveloped states," the Bihar chief minister said.

 

The comments assume significance as these come at a time when the Gujarat chief minister is being talked about as a prospective candidate of BJP for the Prime Minister’s post.

 

Kumar has made known his unease with Narendra Modi a number of times earlier and because of that the Gujarat chief minister was kept away from campaigning in Bihar during the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

 

Kumar said in the interview that the prime ministerial candidate should be someone who has absolute faith in democratic values.

 

"In a multi-religious and multi-lingual country like ours, the leader should not have rough edges in his personality. An alliance can win the confidence of the people only if the leader is seen as accomodating," the Bihar Chief Minister said, adding he will air these views to NDA allies when the issue comes up.

 

Pushing for early projection of NDA candidate for prime ministership, Kumar said in the interview, "The electorate should know who they are voting for and who will lead the country."

 

He, however, denied that he was aiming for the top post. "I am not in the race for Prime Ministership. I cannot even dream of that high office. The Prime Minister should be from the bigger party.

 

"We can only play a supporting role. But that depends on who leads the alliance. I have already outlined the qualities required of the leader," he said.

 

Supporting Kumar’s views, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi said the NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate should be one having a liberal image like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

 

"He should be acceptable to all sections of the society," he said in Patna.

 

Congress leader and Law Minister Salman Khurshid welcomed Kumar’s remarks. "If there was any doubt about this in any political organisation, their own leaders coming out now and saying this clearly is a welcome thing," he said.

 

At the same time, he wondered, "why does Nitish Kumar have fears that Indian Prime Minister will not be secular, I am not able to understand."

 

JD-U endorses Nitish

NDA constituent JD-U today endorsed party leader Nitish Kumar’s call for projection of a secular person as the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate ahead of the general elections saying his stand is consistent in the backdrop of his secular credentials.

 

"Kumar’s secular credentials and his call for projection of a secular person as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate should be understood in proper perspective," Bihar JD-U president Vashistha Narayan Singh told reporters.

 

"The chief minister’s stand on secularism has been consistent and has remained so in the past and present and will be so in future too ... His comments on NDA’s prime ministerial nominee is fit opinion."

 

Singh said Kumar’s opinion on prime ministerial candidate should be understood in proper perspective as India is a multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual country with a large population of poor people spread over a vast geographical area.

 

Kumar, he said, has ’rightly’ addressed these geographical points and put forth his view on the prospective prime ministerial candidate of NDA.

 

The alliance between BJP and JD-U had been worked out on well settled principles comprising status quo on article 370 of Constitution and judicial and negotiated settlement of the vexed Babri Masjid issue among others.

 

"Kumar’s stand on NDA’s prime ministerial candidate vindicates JD-U’s stand," he added.