PATNA: Amid growing demand from certain BJP functionaries that the saffron party should now have its own chief minister in Bihar, JD(U) on Saturday said it would not compromise on the issue of Nitish Kumar’s leadership at any cost.
“In Bihar, Nitish is the chief minister and he will continue to hold the post. We will not compromise on this issue under any circumstances,” JD(U) national parliamentary board chairman and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha said here on Saturday.
Kushwaha was speaking at an event organized by JD(U) here to celebrate the birth anniversary of Samrat Ashoka. Speaking at the same venue, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said, “Nitish was chosen as chief minister of Bihar by people. He is not holding the chair on the ‘kripa’ (favour/mercy) of anyone.”
Reiterating his party’s long pending demand to hold a caste-based census, Singh said the Centre should take necessary steps to hold the caste-wise enumeration of people during the forthcoming census.
“Caste census is the demand of the time. And our party’s stand on the issue remains the same,” the JD(U) president said, recalling how Nitish Kumar led an all-party delegation from Bihar and met PM Narendra Modi in Delhi to seek case-based census in the country.
