Will continue to keep tab on development work in Bihar: Nitish to JD(U) MLAs

JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Monday told party legislators that he will continue to keep a tab on the development work in Bihar despite having given up the chief minister's post a week ago. Kumar addressed a meeting of the legislative party at 1, Anney Marg, which is the official residence of the chief minister and which the JD(U) supremo, now a Rajya Sabha MP, had occupied for nearly two decades. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, JD(U) MLC and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, ''Our party leader has said that except for sessions of Parliament which would require his presence in Delhi, he will spend his maximum time in Bihar.'' ''Nitish Kumar told us that he will ensure that the good work done while he was in power continues under the new government, in which the JD(U) is an important partner. To keep a tab, he will tour the state in due course,'' Neeraj Kumar said. The JD(U) spokesperson was asked about speculations that the meeting had been convened to decide on the role to be assigned to Nishant, the party supremo's son, who joined the JD(U) last month, but has declined to accept a ministerial berth in the Samrat Choudhary government. ''There is no confusion about the role of Nishant, who has been accepted by the party as the leader of the future. In any case, there was no discussion on him today,'' Neeraj Kumar said. Nitish Kumar has been authorised by the legislators to decide on choosing the legislative party leader, he added. Among those present at the meeting were Union minister and former JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' and Deputy Chief Ministers Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav.