PATNA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Bihar's deputy CM Samrat Choudhary has said that although BJP has accepted Janata Dal-United (JDU) president Nitish Kumar as the chief minister, the party has not given up its resolve to form its own government in the state. Choudhary said BJP was an organisation that patiently worked at attaining its stated objectives.

Choudhary also the state BJP president, said this at an auditorium packed with party workers and senior leaders in Patna calling it a tough call for the party. He said, "A lot of discussions took place at the national and the state levels on this decision, and finally, to drive out of power the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal), which had once brought 'jungle raj' to Bihar the decision to align with Nitish Kumar was taken. But remember there is no going back on our pledge to form our own government in Bihar one day." 

Choudhary further said that the BJP will honour whichever alliance it was a part of, as long as it survives and will do the same with Nitish Kumar. He said that Nitish was enticed by the 'INDI Alliance' people with the promise of prime ministership but he realised in good time that it was a grouping merely formed to protect the corrupt, thus he walked out of it and joined us.

He cited that generations passed since Syama Prasad Mukherjee first raised his voice against Article 370, but when Narendra Modi won an absolute majority, it was consigned to the waste bin of history. "Same with Ayodhya, for years detractors mocked our chants of 'mandir wahin banayenge' (Ram temple will be built at the site) with the barb - 'tareekh nahin bataenge' (we will not say by when construction would be complete)," he said.

After initial support to the INDIA bloc, last month Nitish Kumar broke JDU's ties with the alliance, on 28 January he also dumped the Mahagathbandhan government in the state, consisting of the Congress and the RJD, and joined hands with the BJP and was sworn in as the chief minister for the ninth time in 24 years.