'I am neither interested nor in the race for Rashtrapati', clarifies Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday clarified he was neither interested nor in the race to run for the office of the President of India. Nitish said the statement of his cabinet colleague Shrawan Kumar suggesting his (Nitish) name as the most suitable candidate for President was wrong and he has regretted it.

Nitish made the statement while speaking to media persons after his weekly Janata Darbar. He said for the last few months, reports are appearing about him as a potential candidate for the Presidential elections. "They are baseless. I am neither interested nor in the race," the chief minister said.

Nitish said he was still undecided about supporting a candidate. "Till date, it is not clear whether there will be one candidate or more".

There are not even preliminary talks on the choice of the candidate so far who will be the NDA candidate to run for the presidential elections, he said. "Abhi to koi baatchit bhi nahi hui hai NDA me," Nitish said in Hindi.

He added that he and his party would act on the choice of the candidate. The chief minister admitted that, in the past, JDU though had voted against the NDA-sponsored candidate P A Sangma and supported the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee.

Notably, in the 2017 presidential elections, JDU supported Ramnath Kovid though the former Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar was from Bihar.

Further, speaking to the media, Nitish regretted violence in certain parts of the country following the controversial comments of Nupur Sharma. "BJP has already taken action against her. There was no cause for reaction," he said.

Amid the violence in Ranchi, Nitish said, "Nitin Nawin, a young minister from Bihar was attacked following which Bihar government asked the Jharkhand police to take immediate action. One Mohammad Anis of Sukhdev Nagar has been arrested on the charges of attacking the minister's vehicle."