'Nitish Kumar is welcome to join NDA'

Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said that Nitish Kumar should join the NDA.

Patna, June 24: The Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Lok Janshakti Party on Saturday said they will welcome Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar into the National Democratic Alliance.

"Nitish Kumar ka hum NDA mein swagat karenge, agar wo apna kadam NDA ki taraf badhaye to hum kadam se kadam milakar chalne ko taiyyar hai (We will welcome Nitish Kumar in the NDA. If he will move towards NDA, we will reciprocate and work in unity)," senior BJP leader Vinod Narayan Jha said here.

Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said that Nitish Kumar should join the NDA.

"If Nitish Kumar joins the NDA, LJP will welcome him," he said.

Paswan added that Nitish Kumar is feeling uncomfortable in the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress.

Jha and Paswan have asked Nitish Kumar, who is the JD-U president, to join the NDA after he announced his support for the BJP-led NDA nominee for President, Ram Nath Kovind. Earlier, BJP state president Nityanand Rai also said that Nitish Kumar is welcome in the NDA.

Nitish Kumar on Friday said his party is free to take its decisions, and admonished the Opposition for fielding "Bihar ki beti (Bihar's daughter)" Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, in the Presidential poll, to lose.

However, Janata Dal-United leader Shayam Rajak said JD-U is part of the Grand Alliance and it will not join the NDA.

IANS