PATNA: JD(U) Parliamentary Board chairman and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday said the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is “PM material” and “he has the potential and all qualities to become the prime minister.”
Talking to media persons here a day after JD(U)’s national executive committee meeting that was held in Delhi, Kushwaha said, “People elected Narendra Modi as the prime minister (in 2014) and today he is doing good work. But there are other leaders in the country who have the potential to become the prime minister. Nitish Kumar is one of such leaders. Nitish Kumar has all the capability of becoming the prime minister and there is no doubt about that. He should be called PM material.”
“It is not about challenging the current PM Modi,” Kushwaha, who merged his 8-year old RLSP in Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) just four months back, said. Soon after joining the JD(U) in March this year, Kushwaha was made the party’s parliamentary board chairman.
On being asked whether Nitish Kumar will be projected as the Prime Ministerial face, Kushwaha said, “We are in the NDA and firmly support the alliance. There is no discussion about this for now.”
The JD(U) is an ally of the BJP in Bihar as well as at the Centre. Its outgoing national president RCP Singh was inducted into the union council of ministers when PM Modi expanded his cabinet on July 7 this year.
Kushwaha’s remark came at a time when opposition parties are in deliberation to form a united “third front” against the BJP especially its PM Modi.
When asked to react on Kushwaha’s “PM material” remark, Nitish said he had no idea about any such statement (of Upendra).
“Why should I be a PM material? There was no such talk at the JD(U) meeting in Delhi on Saturday,” Nitish told reporters. The CM was talking to reporters outside Patna airport on his return from the national capital after attending his party’s national executive meeting
