Nitish to Rahul: Be CM before trying to be PM

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Stung by the Congress party’s continuing frontal attacks on his government, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Monday advised Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to first prove his political mettle by becoming chief minister of a state before becoming India’s Prime Minister.

“He (Gandhi) comes to Bihar to deliver lectures to the state government. He wants to become Prime Minister. But I have a simple advice for Rahul Gandhi. He should first prove himself by becoming a chief minister in a state before becoming Prime Minister,” said Mr Kumar soon after casting his vote in his native place of Bakhtiarpur near Patna.
Mr Kumar’s attacks on the Congress party’s popular youth icon, whose campaign meetings in Bihar consistently drew large crowds last month, come on the heels of similar outbursts by top NDA leaders such as JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav and BJP national spokesman Ravishankar Prasad, among others.
“He (Gandhi) can choose to be SM from any state. There is UP, he can try there. If in Bihar, there are still two more phases of elections yet to take place. He can try his luck here,” said Mr Kumar, with a smile on his face, as he advanced the theory propagated by the NDA that the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family is a political greenhorn with little understanding of the nation and its politics. Mr Kumar’s choice of the word “lectures” has its origins in the unease felt by most NDA leaders in Bihar ever since Mr Gandhi began pointing at the gaping holes in the state government’s much-hyped claims of rapid development in his public speeches.