Patna: The Congress on Friday urged all secular parties to fight the upcoming polls under the leadership of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar.
The Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) recently said it is unwilling to project Kumar as chief ministerial candidate.
“Nitish Kumar is a popular leader and the most credible face of Bihar, and it will indeed bring surprising results if the secular parties go the polls under his leadership,” a group of senior Congress leaders, including state vice-president Ram Chandra Bharti and general secretary Vinod Sharma said in a press statement on Friday.
Accepting Kumar’s leadership was a must to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming state polls, the group said.
The statement cited a survey, which said Kumar was the most popular leader in Bihar and if the secular parties go to polls under his leadership, the BJP is bound to suffer serious electoral setbacks.
“It’s the demand of the time now to immediately declare Kumar the chief ministerial candidate,” the Congress leaders said.
The exhortation comes close on the heels of state Congress president Ashok Kumar Chaudhary seeking to fight to polls under Kumar.
As per a survey conducted by an a News Channel, the secular alliance comprising the JD-U, RJD and the Congress may get near 127 seats out of total 243 if they fight together.
However, in case of them fighting separately, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could emerge as the clear winner with 126 seats in its kitty.
The survey also claims the BJP and the JD-U could make a clean sweep winning 207 seats if they fight together — an idea which can’t be described as “bizarre” given the unpredictable nature of Bihar politics.
It further claims Kumar remains the most popular leader of Bihar with 52 per cent people rooting for him, followed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad in second and third respectively.
