LJP to go with BJP's decision on CM candidate: Ram Vilas Paswan

PATNA: A day after Sushil Kumar Modi was virtually endorsed as BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the Bihar Assembly polls due later this year, LJP today sought to fall in line saying it will go with whatever decision the saffron party takes on the issue.

"We will go with the BJP on whatever decision it takes on anointment of any leader as its chief ministerial face in Bihar, including Sushil Kumar Modi," LJP chief and Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told PTI.

Paswan had sometime ago vehemently opposed the idea of a local BJP leader being projected as the chief ministerial candidate in the state and said the saffron party should contest the polls on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma and mass appeal.

Asked to comment, the LJP chief said he still believed that the prime minister should lead NDA's campaign in Bihar Assembly polls as his appeal among the masses was intact despite the Delhi Assembly poll result.

"Modi's charisma remains intact and he will swing the fortune in favour of the BJP-led NDA in Bihar Assembly polls on his mass appeal alone," he said and described the verdict in Delhi Assembly polls as an one-off thing.

"Let us not forget that the PM had successfully led BJP's electoral campaign in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand," he addded.

Sushil Modi, a senior Bihar BJP leader and a former deputy chief minister, was virtually endorsed as the party's chief ministerial face in the next assembly polls in Bihar by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday.

"The people of Bihar are fortunate that they have a leader like Sushil Kumar Modi with a spotless political life. One Modi at the Centre and another Modi helming Bihar will be good for the state and its people. They should support such a leadership," Naidu had said.