The Congress on Saturday reacted to Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi’s statement claiming that Nitish Kumar was offered the prime minister’s post by the INDIA bloc.
“We don’t have any such information,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said at the press briefing after the Congress Working Committee meeting.
Tyagi had told Indian Express,”Such is the game of politics that those who had refused to make Nitish Kumar INDIA bloc’s national convenor have been now making offers to make Nitish PM.”
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The senior JD(U) leader accused the INDIA bloc members Congress and other parties of ‘ill-treating’ Nitish Kumar. Tyagi also said that his party would not return to the INDIA bloc.
With 12 seats, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has emerged as a crucial ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition.
Kumar, 73, was instrumental in the formation of the opposition INDIA alliance last year. However, he switched back to the NDA in January after Mamata Banerjee proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the potential PM candidate of the INDIA bloc.
On Friday, Kumar while supporting the NDA proposal to name Narendra Modi as the leader of coalition, said,”Agli baar jab aap aaiye toh kuch log jo idhar udhar jeet gaya hai, agli baar sab haarega. Humko poora bharosa hai (Those who have won this time will lose the next elections. I’m confident about it). They never worked for the nation. They never served the country. The country will progress under your (PM Modi) leadership.”
“All the pending works of Bihar will be done. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together and we will all work together with you (PM Modi),” the Bihar chief minister added.