No doubt about NDA’s win in ’19 polls: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would undoubtedly win the 2019 Lok Sabha election, chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday.
Nitish, who is also the JD(U) president and an NDA ally in Bihar, rejected the opponents' contention that the BJP's loss in the Rajasthan bypolls recently was a curtain-raiser to the 2019 general elections. "Those interpreting the Rajasthan bypoll results as the beginning of the countdown for PM Narendra Modi need not harbour any misunderstanding about the NDA success in 2019," Nitish said after his weekly 'Lok Samvad' programme here.

Citing the example of 2009 bypolls in Bihar, Nitish said the results for a few seats never reflect the general mood of the public. "The JD(U)-BJP combine had won 32 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2009. We had won more than 200 seats in a 243-member house in the 2010 assembly election. But the picture was entirely different in the byelections held before the Lok Sabha and assembly polls," Nitish said.

Nitish, who formed government with BJP in July last year after parting ways with the grand alliance comprising RJD and Congress, also recalled his prediction of the saffron party's victory in Gujarat assembly election held recently.

"Many people had different opinion about the results before Gujarat assembly election. But I was firm that people of the Prime Minister's home state will not vote to any other party," Nitish said in support of his predictions for an NDA victory in 2019 general election.

In the recent Rajasthan bypolls, Congress wrested Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats and Mandalgarh assembly seat from the ruling BJP by impressive margins.

Taking a shot at his party over its defeat in the Rajasthan bypolls, BJP's Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha had tweeted, "Rajasthan becomes the first state to give the Bharatiya Janata Party 'triple talaq'." The actor-turned-politician had also tweeted: "Breaking news with record-breaking disastrous results for ruling party: Ajmer: Talaq, Alwar: Talaq, Mandalgarh: Talaq."