Not in race for Bihar CM: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Patna, Jun 11: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said he was not in the race for Bihar chief minister and asserted that it is not necessary for BJP to have somebody nominated before the polls. "I am nowhere in this race.

I neither wish to be Chief Minister of the state nor have any interest in it," Prasad said while responding to the queries on his being in race for BJP chief ministerial candidate for the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled for later this year.

On RJD chief Lalu Prasad daring BJP to announce its CM choice, the Union Minister said, "Lalu Prasad is very well aware of BJP and its leaders' courage, especially my and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Both of us took him on in the Animal Husbandry Scam." The Rs 1,000 crore scam proved to be the unmaking of the RJD chief, who had to resign from the Chief Minister's post in 1997.

Lalu was convicted in the case and handed a five-year prison term by a CBI court at Ranchi in 2013.

The senior BJP leader said the BJP Parliamentary Board selects chief ministerial nominees and it was not necessary to have somebody nominated before the polls.

"Our party did not declare any chief ministerial candidate for Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand polls. But in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh the nominees were announced. We have both precedents," he added.

Prasad, however, said BJP has enough time to declare a chief ministerial candidate if it wishes to do so. BJP sources though indicated that the party is delaying any such announcement to ensure that its flock of leaders work together to ensure victory in the polls.

PTI