After handing over the post of Janata Dal (United) president to close aide RCP Singh, Nitish Kumar on Sunday claimed that he had no desire to become the Bihar chief minister again but had to do so under pressure.
"I had no desire to become the Chief Minister. I had said that the public had given its mandate and anyone can be made the Chief Minister, BJP could make its own Chief Minister," he was quoted as saying by ANI.
He made the remarks during the JD(U)'s national executive meeting where he proposed the name of Singh for the top post.
This comes amid rising tension with BJP which emerged as the senior partner in the Bihar ruling alliance in the elections held in October-November.
The recent defection of six JD(U) MLAs to BJP in Arunachal Pradesh has put further strain in the alliance. The JD-U on Sunday expressed its deep resentment at the BJP for taking away their MLAs, saying it was against the coalition's understanding.
"The act of the BJP is against the spirit of the coalition pact. Its leaders should have learnt from the coalition in Bihar where we (JD-U and BJP) are in power for 15 years and we did not attempt anything like this. The act of the BJP has created huge anger among our top leadership in the party and they have openly condemned the move of saffron party," party's national spokesperson KC Tyagi said.
The JD-U also made a sharp attack on BJP's policies like the laws against "love jihad".
"Making a law on 'Love Jihad' amounts to creating hatred in the country. JD-U condemns such law and will never implement them in Bihar," Tyagi said.
"Any person belonging to any caste or community has a complete constitutional right to get married.... Harassing a person on the name of Love Jihad is condemnable and dangerous for society," he added.
The JD(U) has also expressed its desire to contest upcoming assembly election in West Bengal where the BJP is attempting to unseat Mamata Banerjee.
"Nitish Kumar further expressed his view to participate in upcoming elections in other states of the country including West Bengal. In next two days, the party will announce seats on which it would contest in West Bengal. JD-U will contest the Bengal election with full strength and Nitish Kumar will campaign for the party," Tyagi said.
