Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stated on Thursday, 12 November, that he has no intention of retiring in the near future and that his election rally speech in Purnia, Bihar earlier this month was misinterpreted.
Nitish Kumar, in a rally for Janata Dal United said, "This is the last day of election. The day after this election will end and this is my last election. All's well that ends well."
This statement was perceived as his retirement announcement or an election gimmick which Kumar rebuked on Thursday to news agency, ANI saying, “I did not talk about retirement...I always say the same thing at the last rally in every election that ''all is well that ends well”. If you listen to the speech back and forth, everything will be clear."
Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged the winner of 75 seats and became the single-largest party and as reported by NDTV, challenged Nitish Kumar to step down on Thursday saying that he should “listen to his conscience and step down”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, has endorsed a new term for Kumar in his statement at BJP headquarters, Delhi on Wednesday, 11 November, “We shall fulfil promises made to the people of Bihar under the leadership of Nitishji.”
The NDA would be forming the next government in Bihar but CM Nitish Kumar said that he is not making any claim to the post and the alliance will decide the next CM despite earlier assurances by BJP that the post was his. Kumar’s party, the Janata Dal (United) only won 43 seats in theelections, and was powered by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s 74 seats, making NDA the majority party in the 243-member Assembly.
If elected, Nitish Kumar would be the CM for the seventh time in Bihar. However, he faced much public anger and criticism during his rallies.
When asked about being tagged as ‘arrogant’, he requested media persons with folded hands to please not call him that.
Bihar’s Disenchantment With CM Nitish and JD(U)
In a report by NDTV where he was asked about the public disenchantment of his party for handling the migration crisis, he responded, “"How can you not know what efforts we made since the lockdown started? We have done so much work in Bihar. If someone is spreading falsehoods, what can we do?"
He further went on to say that he and his party, the JD(U) took every measure to curb the pandemic in Bihar. “We conveyed every step that we took during the corona crisis. But some people kept criticising us. If that gave people the wrong idea then how can we stop it?" reported NDTV.
(With inputs from NDTV, The Times Of India and ANI)
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