Feeling annoyed by relentless questions and speculation on the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Monday gave ally BJP a little relief by saying that he had not set any deadline for the BJP to declare the name.
While Mr Kumar, who is opposed to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of the BJP being projected as the NDA’s PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, insisted that a consensus name must be announced before the polls, he denied having ever said that the announcement must come at least a year before the polls.
“I have never talked about the time for announcing the PM candidate’s name. I have set no deadline,” said Mr Kumar to journalists after his weekly “Janata Durbar” programme. Even as the JD(U) sees him as the most suitable PM candidate in the NDA and hopes to have the BJP see the advantages soon, Mr Kumar echoed JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav’s view that the NDA’s choice of its PM candidate would be decided in the meeting of all its allies in due time.
Taking a dig at hyper speculations in some sections of the media on the issue, Mr Kumar asked the media not to “go overboard on this issue” and said it should be left to politicians. “The issue should not be repeated on a daily basis. The right of when and what should be done should be left to politicians like us,”
Mr Kumar had said last week that he was not in the race for prime minister’s post. After former External Affairs Minister and senior JD(U) leader Hari Kishore Singh publicly said Mr Kumar was the most suitable person for the post, the CM said it pained him to issue frequent clarifications.