Patna: Chief minister Samrat Choudhary said that his predecessor and JD(U) president, Nitish Kumar, resigned of his own accord and was not forced out by BJP. Choudhary, the first BJP functionary to head a govt in Bihar, underscored that Kumar—now a Rajya Sabha member—“remains Bihar NDA’s undisputed neta”.Speaking at a media event on Friday, Choudhary revealed that BJP had not asked Kumar to step down. According to the CM, Kumar chose to reciprocate a historical gesture by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had backed Kumar for the top post in 2000 despite BJP having more MLAs than the erstwhile Samata Party at the time.Highlighting BJP’s historically pivotal role in Bihar politics, Choudhary pointed out that even RJD president Lalu Prasad owed his initial political rise to the saffron party. Prasad first became chief minister in 1990 with the outside support of BJP. Choudhary remarked that in doing so, Prasad allegedly snatched away the rightful claim of dalit neta Ram Sundar Das, who was backed by then Prime Minister V P Singh but lost the legislative party leadership after upper-caste votes were split by Raghunath Jha.Choudhary also hit back sharply at leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who recently mocked him as a “selected, and not elected” chief minister. Retaliating without naming Yadav directly, Choudhary reminded RJD working president of his own family’s political history. He noted that Tejashwi’s mother, Rabri Devi, was similarly not elected by the public when she first assumed the chief minister’s office. He further added that RJD had never announced beforehand that it would back Tejashwi for the deputy chief minister’s post during its tenure, dismissing the opposition’s criticism as hypocritical.
