Nitish Kumar not a candidate for presidential election: JD(U) chief Lalan Singh

PATNA: JD(U) national president and the party leader in the Lok Sabha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh on Saturday scotched speculations about Bihar CM Nitish Kumar being projected as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election, saying Nitish would continue to serve people of the state.
“Nitish Kumar will continue to serve the people of Bihar as he is not going anywhere. He is also not a candidate for the presidential election,” Singh said while responding to media queries during a party programme in Lakhisarai, which is part of his Munger parliamentary constituency. Singh is touring different parts of his Munger parliamentary constituency for the last two days. Singh also said the picture of the presidential election would become clear after the issuance of notification.
Speculations over Nitish being projected as a candidate for the presidential election, got a fresh momentum on Thursday after the state’s rural development minister Shrawan Kumar said that Bihar CM has all the qualities to hold the office of President of India.
“Being a Bihari, I wish that Nitish Kumar becomes the President of India. He has brought extremely backward Bihar on the track and if he would be given a chance to work as a President of India, he will give his efforts to bring the country forward in the world,” Shrawan, who belongs to Nitish’s JD(U) and the CM’s home district Nalanda, said on Thursday. Shrawan, however, had also said that Nitish was not in the race for the presidential post.
Earlier in February this year when a section of the media projected Nitish as the potential candidate of opposition parties for the presidential election, he himself had dismissed the speculations, saying, “I have neither any desire nor aspiration to become the President of India.”
Then, Nitish had also said that he was surprised by where the talks of making him the presidential candidate of the opposition came from.