Nitish Kumar Should Give Up Bid For Second Term, Says Union Minister

Union minister and chief of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party Upendra Kushwaha said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should voluntarily "give up the bid" for a fourth term in office in 2020.

In an interview to a news channel, Mr Kushwaha said Mr Kumar had served as chief minister for close to 15 years and the time had come for him to consider "giving somebody else a chance".

"It has been close to 15 years since Nitish Kumar was first blessed with the mandate to govern Bihar. It is a pretty long period for a leader to prove his mettle. I think he should now himself give up the bid for another term", Mr Kushwaha said.

The RLSP chief was replying to a query about the likelihood of Mr Kumar facing a tough time in the next state polls due to anti-incumbency. Mr Kushwaha, the Union minister of state for the Human Resource Development, said "I have known (Nitish) Kumar for long and as far as I have understood his personality, he would himself not run for another term".

"He could aim at a bigger political role for himself", he added cryptically.

Mr Kushwaha's comment comes in the backdrop of a number of leaders from his party expressing the view that he would be a better chief ministerial candidate for the NDA in Bihar than Mr Kumar.

A former close associate of Mr Kumar, Mr Kushwaha had formed his own party after resigning from JD(U) in 2013. He allied with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll when Mr Kumar was out of the NDA and his RLSP won three seats.

Although RLSP has two MLAs, none of its members got a ministerial berth after Mr Kumar formed a government with the BJP last year after walking out of the Grand Alliance which comprised RJD and Congress, besides JD(U).

The ruling NDA in Bihar now comprises the JD(U), the BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and the RLSP. The RLSP leaders have been pointing out that Mr Kushwaha belongs to the Koeri caste, which is a much larger social group than the Kurmi community represented by Mr Kumar.

Mr Kushwaha had skipped the dinner meet hosted by BJP in Patna last month to celebrate the completion of four years in power by the Narendra Modi government. The other NDA allies were present at the meet.

The meeting happened to be the first such function held after the return of Mr Kumar, who is also the JD(U) national president, to the BJP-led coalition a year earlier.

Meanwhile, RLSP national secretary and spokesman Madhaw Anand issued a press statement urging the chief minister to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.

In his statement, Mr Anand alleged that the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal could turn out to be "larger than Nithari" if it was properly investigated.

He cited the statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who had said in Parliament on Tuesday that the centre would consider a CBI inquiry if a request to this effect was made by the state government.