Popularity of Nitish, Mamata limited to particular state: Javadekar

New Delhi: Amid talks of a secular front to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar took a jibe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, saying any opposition leader can dream about becoming the country’s Prime Minister.

Javadekar also sounded a note of confidence and said that the BJP would yet again come to power in 2019.

“Anybody can have dreams of becoming the Prime Minister. In 2019, the BJP will again come to power. But any leader from the opposition can have the dreams of becoming the Prime Minister,” Javadekar said in an exclusive interview to ETV News head Jagdeesh Chandra.

“The popularity and reach of Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee is limited to a particular state. They cannot benefit other states. It would be decided by the people as to how they would perform at the Centre,” he added.

After the swearing-in ceremony of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee as the West Bengal Chief Minister earlier on May 27, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav had called upon all secular parties to unite against the BJP and RSS.

“We want all the parties having similar ideologies, the secular parties, to unite. Removing the BJP and the RSS from the centre has become imperative, so we will sit tighter and discuss about that,” he told media in Kolkata.

National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah too batted for a federal front and said the TMC boss could head such a front.

Nitish had earlier accused Prime Minister Modi of not implementing any of the electoral promises made by him.

Addressing an election meeting at Panoor in support of Congress-led UDF in the district during the recently concluded assembly polls, Nitish alleged that Prime Minister Modi was deceiving the people by making mere promises.

“Prime Minister Modi and his friends made a lot of promises during the last Lok Sabha polls to the people of Bihar but after getting power, they forgot all the offers they had made,” he said.

(ANI)