Ram Vilas Paswan on Nitish Kumar going with NDA: Better late than never

Patna, Jul 28 Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan today described Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's choice of lining up with the NDA as "preferable late over never".

The Nitish Kumar-drove NDA government today secured 131 votes against the resistance's 108 amid the floor test in the Bihar Assembly.

"I would term the choice (Nitish lining up with NDA) as preferred late over never, rather I would state that it is a decent choice to be sure," he told reporters here.

Kumar was confirmed as the chief minister yesterday, as he came back to the NDA after four years. The day prior, he had resigned as the chief minister, with the JD(U) breaking positions with its partners - Lalu Yadav's RJD and the Congress.

Taking about the current discussion in which Tejashwi Yadav was entangled, Paswan said Kumar had two alternatives before him - he could have expelled Tejashwi, the vice president serve in the past Grand Alliance government or broke down the bureau.

However, he (Kumar) played a "master stroke" by leaving, the LJP chief said.

"Kumar has now held hands with his characteristic partner by breaking his unnatural union with Lalu Prasad," Paswan told journalists.

"As far back as the Grand Alliance government was formed in Bihar, I had been keeping up that it would not last notwithstanding for more than two years. Presently my prediction has come true," he added.

Expressing happiness over the NDA winning the put stock in vote in the Assembly today, the Union priest said that "another period" has started in the state where advancement would take a front seat.

Paswan, who met Nitish Kumar here after quite a while, welcomed him for framing government and winning the trust vote.

He additionally asked for the chief minister to put peace, advancement and destruction of corruption in the foreground of his agenda for governance.

With the NDA government both at the Center and in Bihar, the state would witness fast all-round development, he said.

Asked whether his LJP would join the Nitish bureau, Paswan implied that his gathering may join the coalition government.

The ostensible reason Kumar to quit was his dropping out with Deputy Chief Minister Yashaswi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is confronting defilement accusations yet had declined to venture down in spite of Kumar's exhortations.

"In the conditions that win in Bihar, it wound up noticeably hard to run the amazing collusion government," Kumar had said in the wake of presenting his renunciation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi on July 26.