At a time when the relations between the JDU and the BJP reportedly have gone sour, the state’s Panchayat Raj minister Samrat Chaudhary has stoked fresh controversy by claiming in the Assembly’s Monsoon Session that the next chief minister of Bihar will be from the BJP.

The minister has claimed that the BJP will form the next government in Bihar in 2025. He went on claim that the incumbent government in Bihar is nothing short of a political compromise between both the parties and according to him, it is what led Nitish Kumar to become the chief minister.

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It may be recalled that the Bihar Assembly elections brought to surface allegations by many in the political corridors of the state that the BJP used Paswan’s LJP to eat into JDU’s vote-share in the state, thereby clipping the wings of Nitish Kumar whose party indeed suffered a loss after LJP came out of the NDA and launched an all-out campaign against the JDU.

“The current government in Bihar is nothing but a political compulsion of both the BJP and the JDU. Nitish Kumar became chief minister of Bihar just because of the political compulsions of both parties. In 2025, the chief minister of Bihar will come from the BJP,” Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary’s statement was backed by Amrendra Pratap Singh, the agriculture minister of Bihar who said that Chaudhury was correct to have said it since there is nothing wrong with his claims. “I also believe that one of our party leaders will be the next CM of Bihar in 2025,” Singh said.

However, the JDU didn’t take the comments by the ministers lightly. JDU MLC Sanjay Singh said that the BJP had contested the election alone in 2015 and everyone knows what happened.

“Nitish Kumar is the leader of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and the BJP top leadership has accepted him as the chief minister of Bihar. If Chaudhary or any other BJP leader has an objection to his leadership, contact them. In a democracy, every political party has a right to contest elections either on its own or in alliance,” Sanjay Singh said.

“Samrat Chaudhary and Amrendra Pratap Singh are ministers in the Bihar government. They should give responsible statements in public.”

…With IANS inputs