Nitish Kumar is "lying": Amit Shah at BJP meet

New Delhi, Aug 17: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at the BJP meeting on Tuesday, denied the claims made by Nitish Kumar that he had not endorsed RCP Singh as the face of the JDU in the Union Cabinet and said the Bihar Chief Minister is "lying", as per the NDTV sources.

The Bihar BJP Core Committee meeting was conducted at party headquarters in Delhi on Tuesday in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party's national president JP Nadda. It comes a week after JD(U) ended its alliance with the BJP.

Speaking at the meeting, Amit Shah reportedly claimed that Nitish Kumar wanted two cabinet berths, but the latter told the former that only one person could be accommodated. Then the Bihar CM endorsed RCP Singh's name, sourced told the channel.

However, the Union Home Minister had assured him of rethinking on the decision later.

RCP Singh was considered a close aide of Nitish Kumar and their relationship strained as Kumar felt that he had become a proxy of Amit Shah. As a result, the Bihar CM denied a third Rajya Sabha term for him.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now set the target of winning 35 out of 40 Lok Sabha in the general elections 2024.

"The meeting of Bihar Core Committee was held today in the presence of President JP Nadda ji and Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji. There has been a very thorough and detailed discussion on all the issues. It is well known that this coalition betrays the people and this is a backdoor alliance which is trying to re-establish Lalu Raj," ANI quoted Bihar BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal as saying.