Patna: Disgruntled BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Thursday said his party should “lead” the next government in Bihar with “a majority on its own” in next year’s assembly polls.
Speaking in his hometown Bhagalpur, the former Union minister who was denied a ticket in the recent Lok Sabha polls, emphasised that this was his personal view which he had conveyed to the party leadership. “It is a personal view that I have also conveyed to the party leadership,” he said.
“The BJP should lead the new government in Bihar. It should try to get a majority on its own, while taking NDA partners along”, he told reporters.
Known to be a critic of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, under whom he previously served in the cabinet before joining the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Choubey affirmed that the JD(U) chief has been and will continue to be an ally of the BJP.
“Nitish ji has been with us in the past, is so at present and will be so in future”, said the BJP leader.
Asked about the prospective chief ministerial candidate, Choubey said, “that will be decided in due course by the top leadership. At present, the cadre should devote itself to help the party do well in polls. I will do my bit, expecting nothing in return”.
Choubey also voiced anguish over “imported” leaders getting top positions in the BJP, and evaded a direct reply when asked whether he was training his guns at state president Samrat Choudhary, who is also a deputy Chief Minister.
“I only mean to say that the party structure has been built through efforts of luminaries like Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We must not let those who have not cut their teeth in the organisation head units at district or state levels”, said Choubey.
Notably, Choudhary, who joined BJP as recently as 2017, was made the state unit chief last year. Failure of the party to get adequate support of OBCs in elections, which Choudhary’s elevation was aimed at, has caused knives to be out.
Meanwhile, the JD(U), which has got a fresh lease of life with a better than expected performance in Lok Sabha polls, was maintaining a studied silence over Choubey’s diatribe.
The party won 12 seats in the recent elections, as many as the BJP, and has got two ministerial berths in the Union government.
Sources in the BJP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Choubey, who was denied the chance to attempt a hat-trick from his Buxar Lok Sabha seat, which the party lost to RJD, could be testing the waters.
The septuagenarian is said to be wanting a ticket for his son Arijit Shashwat, who had made an unsuccessful debut in 2015 assembly polls, but was denied another chance five years later.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Neha Khan | 
