Assembly polls: Race in Bihar BJP for chief minister candidate

Much ahead of the 2015 assembly polls in Bihar, several BJP leaders have staked claim to being nominated as the chief ministerial candidate.

"There are many in the BJP, who are lobbying to be named as chief ministerial candidate for the next assembly polls," a BJP leader said.

If an alliance of the JD-U, the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties comes into being, former chief minister Nitish Kumar will be its leader and face for the next assembly polls.

"Nitish Kumar will be the leader of the alliance as he is widely seen as 'vikash purush'," a JD-U leader said.

But the BJP is a divided house when it comes to projecting former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi as the chief ministerial candidate.

The race for the top post has broken out less than a month ahead of the Aug 21 assembly by-polls for 10 seats.

A former minister and senior BJP legislator Satyadeo Arya Wednesday claimed that he was in the race for the chief ministership.

"I am a candidate for the chief minister's post," he told media persons here.

Former minister and senior BJP leader Prem Kumar has also staked claim to the chief ministership if the NDA forms the government after the next assembly polls.

Prem Kumar said the BJP should project a leader from extremely backward castes like him to take on the proposed combination of the JD-U, the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties, which were together eyeing support of the weaker sections and the OBCs.

The BJP's dilemma was highlighted recently when leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav said only the BJP parliamentary board would decide who will be the leader of the legislative party.

"Neither Sushil Modi nor Nand Kishore have the power to decide it," Yadav said.

Yadav said there was no dearth of leaders in the BJP in Bihar.

According to leaders in the BJP, Yadav is opposed to Modi's projection as chief ministerial candidate against Nitish Kumar in the next assembly polls.

The JD-U and the RJD, which parted ways in 1994, are coming together after the BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.