Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan will not be NDA's chief ministerial candidate in Bihar, his LJP party said here on Saturday.Ahead of the assembly polls, Lok Janshakti Party's parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan said no leader from the LJP will be the chief ministerial candidate."Our concern is that the NDA wins as much seats as possible and forms the next government in Bihar," said Chirag, the son of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.LJP Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Paswan, the brother of Ram Vilas Paswan and uncle of Chirag, had earlier demanded that the National Democratic Alliance should declare Ram Vilas Paswan as the chief ministerial candidate.He said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted Ram Vilas Paswan to become the chief minister.
Meanwhile, union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who is the chief of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, another Bharatiya Janata Party ally, told the media on Saturday that the NDA has not decided whether to declare its chief ministerial candidate before or after the polls.
Meanwhile, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, a senior leader of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal, on Saturday said he was also a candidate for the top post."There are several candidates for chief minister, including he himself," Siddiqui told the media, referring to talks likely to be held in Delhi between Lalu and Prasad Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United on Sunday to sort out differences between the two parties.Siddiqui, considered a close confidant of Lalu Prasad, said he was in politics for over three decades and deserved to be a candidate for the post."If Jitan Ram Manjhi can become chief minister, why can't I," he asked.Last year, Manjhi was picked by then chief minister Nitish Kumar as his replacement when he quit after the JD-U's rout in the Lok Sabha polls. He was later removed after a controversy.