Nitish will be face of Bihar assembly elections: BJP

A day after Jaiswal, a Bihar minister, was appointed the party's state president, he made it clear that it would be Nitish Kumar as the face of the party's assembly elections. 

 Jaiswal refuted speculations of the NDA contesting the next assembly elections on the face of a BJP leader. 

"We will fight elections under the leadership of Nitishji. There is no challenge for NDA in Bihar. In the Lok Sabha elections, NDA was leading in 174 of 243 assembly seats in the state, and it is an indication that we are much ahead than opposition," he said. 

 The BJP national leadership on late Thursday night appointed Jaiswal as the new state party president, replacing Samrat Choudhary, who is Bihar deputy chief minister. 

 Early this month, a BJP ally, LJP(R) chief Chirag Paswan, who is a union minister, said that NDA would contest the next assembly polls under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, a sentiment, another ally, HAM, headed by Jitan Ram Manjhi, repeated. 

 Soon after the result of Lok Sabha polls on June 4, BJP leaders said that Nitish Kumar will be the face of NDA in next year assembly polls. BJP leaders claimed that NDA would win 200 plus assembly seats. NDA won 30 of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and the opposition Mahagathbandhan won 9 seats and 1 seat was won by an independent candidate considered close to Congress.

-- MI Khan in Patna