After exercising his vote Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday condemned his alliance partner BJP's candidate from Bhopal Pragya Thakur’s controversial remark that Nathuram Godse was a deshbhakt (patriot).

“This is condemnable...Mahatma Gandhi is father of nation and people will not like if anyone talks about Godse in this manner”, Mr Kumar said when asked about BJP’s Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur’s controversial remark that assassin of Mahatma Gandhi Nathuram Godse was a patriot.

Mr Kumar further said BJP should expel Ms Thakur from the party.

“We should not tolerate such things”, he added while speaking to a news agency. When asked if Ms Thakur be expelled from the party, Mr Kumar said, “it must be considered”. “But, it is an internal matter of the BJP”, he added further.

Mr Kumar exercised his vote at a government school near Raj Bhawan and said that “elections should not be held over such long duration”.

“A long gap was there between each seven phases of poll...I’ll write to leaders of all political parties to build a consensus on this that election should wrap up early for convenient of voters”, said Mr Kumar while speaking to journalists.

Meanwhile, reacting over Mr Kumar’s statement, former Chief Minister and RJD leader Rabri Devi said, “If he (Nitish Kumar) is so troubled by Pragya Thakur, then he should resign from the government”.

Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he would never “forgive” Pragya Thakur for her comments on Mahatma Gandhi.