Patna (Bihar) [India], October 19 : Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Sunday reiterated his support for Nitish Kumar as the leader of the NDA alliance in Bihar assembly polls and said that after the results, elected MLAs will once again choose the JD(U) leader as the Chief Minister.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, he said, "Every party wants its leader to become the Chief Minister. I myself wanted my father to become the Chief Minister or even the Prime Minister. Discussions on these topics should be held at the right occasions. In today's situation, many leaders of the NDA alliance have made it clear that we are contesting the elections under the leadership of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and after the elections, the elected MLAs will once again choose Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister."
Paswan stressed his current focus is on strengthening his party's candidates. He expressed a strong commitment to prioritising Bihar's development over the next four to five years.
"I have always maintained that I want to focus more on Bihar. I wanted to contest the Bihar elections, but the prolonged negotiations shifted my priority to focusing on the candidates of my party. In the next four to five years, I will try to focus on Bihar even more," he said when asked about why he is not contesting polls in Bihar.
The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) announced its first list of 14 candidates for the Bihar elections on October 14 and later released its second list of 15 candidates on October 16.
The polling for the Bihar Assembly elections will take place on November 6 and 11. The results will be announced on November 14.
In the seat-sharing arrangement within the NDA, the BJP and JD(U) are contesting on 101 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party (headed by Ram Vilas) is contesting on 29 seats, and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) are contesting on six seats each.
The main contest in Bihar will be between the NDA and the Mahagathbandha alliance spearheaded by Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The INDIA alliance is aiming to unseat Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who currently leads the NDA in the state.
The Mahagathbandhan, comprising the Congress, RJD, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), and Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP), appears to be grappling with internal coordination. Although Congress and the RJD have declared their candidates, the alliance has yet to formally announce its seat-sharing formula.