Nitish Kumar mocks PM Modi, but again rules himself out of PM's race

Nitish Kumar oversaw the preparations for the national executive meeting scheduled on Saturday and the national council on Sunday.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on on September 2, 2022 berated the "polarisation to save the corrupt" jibe of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom he also sought to tick off referring to his own stint at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mr. Kumar, whose "national role" has become a matter of much speculation since his break-up with the BJP last month, however also sought to rule himself out, for the umpteenth time, of the Prime Ministerial race.

"Please leave aside such questions ( chhodiye ye sab baat)," was the reply of Mr. Kumar when journalists approached him with queries at State headquarters of his JD(U), where gigantic posters have been put up to assert that the party's de facto leader was out to replicate across the nation what he has achieved in Bihar.

" Pradesh mein dikha, desh mein dikhega" (it has been seen in the state, now it will be seen across the country) was one of the many open-ended slogans that these posters have been inscribed with.

Mr. Kumar, who arrived barely a few hours ahead of a meeting of State executive office-bearers, said he had come to see preparations for the national executive meeting scheduled on Saturday and the national council a day later.

"Delegates will be coming from across the country. Today I came just to have a look at things. For the next two days I will be here full time," declared the septuagenarian, who has of late been demonstrating that he still has a lot of fire in his belly.

Earlier, he was asked elsewhere as to whether he thought Mr. Modi's acerbic remark at a function in Kerala was tantamount to sounding the bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls wherein the BJP is expected to be pitted against various regional parties with hardly any allies by its side.