Nitish Kumar rules out running for PM post in 2019

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar on Monday emphatically said that he was not in the race for the prime minister’s post in 2019. “I am unnecessarily being targeted. We are a small party. I am not a fool… If I become the national president of my party, it does not mean that I harbour national aspiration (of becoming the PM),” Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of ‘Lok Samvad’ programme here.

According to PTI report in Indian Express, Kumar stated that he believed in working for the people, Kumar said he has served the people throughout his political career – be it as MP, Union minister and now as the chief minister. At present, the people of Bihar have given the mandate to grand alliance and he was doing his work in a positive manner, he said.

Asked whether he has the capability to lead a non-BJP alternative, Kumar said that “I neither have any aspiration nor the ability to become the PM.”

The JD(U) president, who was flanked by ministers and party leaders during interaction with the media, said that it was difficult to say as to who will emerge as the PM candidate in 2019.

“It sounds weird… I am not the claimant for the prime minister’s post in 2019 (general elections),” he said.

“The person in whom people will see potential will become the prime minister. People saw potential in Narendra Modi during last elections, he has become the PM,” Kumar said adding that Modi, then the Gujarat Chief Minister was not even in the frame to become the PM five years ago.