The work done by the National Democratic Alliance government has transformed Bihar, which now has world class infrastructure and access to good health care, education and employment avenues as against the misrule of the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s tenure, said BJP president JP Nadda. In an interview to HT, he expressed confidence about the NDA winning 160 plus seats in Bihar. Edited excerpts:
Nitish Kumar has been in power for two decades now, yet there are several indices where Bihar continues to lag. Why has the government not been able to address these issues?
A lot of improvement has been made on the ground. Take the example of the Patna medical college, it now has modern equipment with 5,500 beds. There was a time when goats were tied inside the medical wards… today Ayushmann Mandir‘s are functional. The indices show a lot of differences and improvement. There were no roads, there used to be no electricity for 22 hours. I have lived in Bihar. I have seen a time when 20 years ago, people would go to inverter shops to have electricity supplied to their homes, it was a business. The young had to pay money to get their mobile phones charged. Today there are roads, there is 24-hour supply of power. [Former CM and RJD leader] Lalu Prasad Yadav used to tell people, if roads are constructed then the police will come, have your toddy and be happy.
Is focussing on RJD’s Jungle Raj enough to convince people to vote for the NDA? There seems to be more emphasis on what happened during RJD’s rule than what was accomplished during the NDA’s.
We have been doing both together, [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi ji speaks on the development visible in Bihar and also about Jungle Raj. Just the other day we saw a young kid on a stage who said if Tejashwi Yadav comes to power, then we will walk around with a gun in our pocket…and people were laughing. The DNA of the RJD is anarchist and of Jungle Raj and it has not changed till date. Tejashwi has not apologised for his father’s mistakes or said I will make amends.
The BJP has been emphatic in projecting the NDA as a cohesive alliance but given Kumar’s tendency to switch sides, is the BJP anxious?
No there is no such anxiety. I’m very clear that we are contesting together, we will win the election together and run the government together
Is that why the BJP has projected Nitish Kumar as the face and not named its own leader as CM candidate?
It is not a new thing for the BJP to not announce a name. There are many states, for instance, in Madhya Pradesh, where we did not announce a chief minister but had a new face. Even in Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, we had new faces and none of them were the CM face.
In 2020, when we had more seats than the JDU, we still made Nitish Kumar the CM because we believe in walking the talk. We said the election will be fought under his leadership and he will be the CM…there is a process of course, there’ll be a legislative party meeting where they (JDU) will pick their leader and we will pick ours and then together we will pick a leader.
There is a new entrant in the fray, Jan Suraaj.
They are a non-entity, a non-starter. A commentator cannot become a player. It is different to plan an election, but different to contest an election and the day you decide not to contest is the day you can see your defeat…
But he is wooing the same demographic as you and raising the same issues.
As i said, it is easier to coach others…when it comes to the actual playing, it is the player who has to play. The youth is so enlightened, they understand that giving their vote to him is wasting it. The people of Bihar know that the person who will actually work on these issues is Nitish Kumar.
Who does not have age and health on his side…
But he is still capable and is managing everything properly. Moving forward, we will all work together.
Tejashwi Yadav’s promise of government jobs to every family has become a talking point. Will it impact the poll outcome?
The youth knows the difference between what Tejashwi says, what Rahul Gandhi says and what Nitish Kumar says. When the NDA says we will create jobs and employment avenues for one crore, it is doable. There will be private jobs, government jobs and entrepreneurship. When the RJD promises government jobs for all families, it is an expenditure of ₹12 lakh crore, where is the budget for that? People of Bihar know that government jobs or avenues for employment will be possible only when NDA is in power and there is stability.
Yesterday Rahul Gandhi again levelled charges of discrepancies in the voter list in Haryana. How do you respond?
The fact that he’s talking about Haryana at a time when Bihar is going to polls shows that he has conceded defeat. There are two things here. One, if you look at it from a wider perspective and two, if you look at it from the prism of electoral politics. Just as a child looks for excuses to cover up his own deficiencies and blames the teacher, Rahul Gandhi is doing just the same. From a wider perspective, he’s become a part and parcel of a deep state conspiracy. In opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi he has now begun opposing the country. He raised questions about the surgical strike, tried to lower the morale of the armed forces after Operation Sindoor and when he goes abroad, he talks about the Constitution and says our democratic institutions are in danger. He has an anti-national stance against the country. He also raised questions about Special Intensive Revision.
The election commission has been telling him to give a petition or a memorandum,but he has not done so. This also shows his seriousness. SIR has been conducted eight times since 1952, even when his grandmother and father were in office…What is the problem with the same exercise being conducted in 2025?
Caste plays a key role in Bihar. Do you think the Opposition’s caste combination gives it an edge?
Caste is a factor, but, in the end, development and stability are important. People in Bihar are very smart and the most enlightened in terms of understanding politics.
When will your successor be appointed?
(Smiles) it will be done after the Bihar polls. We will have elections to pick state presidents in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and then the new national president will be announced too.
