Patna, March 19 Bihar minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary rejected suggestions that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is expected to step down soon to enter the Rajya Sabha, has designated his deputy, Samrat Choudhary, as his successor.
During his visit to the Jamui district on Wednesday as part of the Samriddhi Yatra, Kumar pointed towards Samrat Choudhary, a senior BJP leader, and remarked, "He will be in charge of Bihar, and the state will make tremendous progress."
This led to speculation in some sections of the media that Kumar, who heads the JD(U), was signaling his desire for Choudhary to become the new chief minister.
However, when questioned, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, a senior JD(U) leader, responded, "I was there. So, please do not come to me with your interpretations."
Despite this, Chaudhary admitted that as the deputy chief minister, Samrat Choudhary has been working closely with Kumar, who has a habit of encouraging all his cabinet colleagues by saying that he or she will be in charge.
"There is nothing new about that. You (journalists) are imagining that it is a new signal," he said.
Chaudhary was speaking to journalists at the chief minister's residence late in the evening after the last Iftar party hosted by the JD(U) president in his current capacity.
He said, "Our chief minister has always cared about the minorities, and this is why he invites Muslims to his house every year during the holy month of Ramadan."
Asked whether the longest-serving chief minister appeared emotional during the occasion, Chaudhary remarked cryptically, "Politics has its own dynamics. It is not guided by emotions."
After Kumar steps down, the new government is likely to be led by the BJP, the single largest party in the assembly.
Sources close to the JD(U) president claim that his son, Nishant, who was recently inducted into the party, is likely to be appointed as the deputy chief minister in the new government.