Bihar CM Nitish Kumar says will not campaign for Saryu Rai in Jharkhand Assembly election

Putting all speculations to rest that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may campaign for BJP's rebel candidate Saryu Rai, who has decided to challenge Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das from East Singhboom in the upcoming assembly election, the JD-U chief said that he is not needed there, while responding to reporters in Patna on Wednesday (November 20).

Notably, the political circles in both the states were agog with speculations today in the morning that the Bihar CM will campaign for Saryu Rai, who is known to have played a key role in busting the fodder scam against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav. Rai also enjoys friendly relation with Nitish Kumar, as they participated in the JP Movement in the 1970s.

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The BJP, which is yet to recover from the shock of not so-convincing Assembly election results in Haryana and Maharashtra, this jolt could have been a real, as the party can not afford to lose this significant state in the assembly election. 

Raghubar Das and Saryu Rai have never been on the best of terms in these five years, as the latter has often criticised his own government for some of its decisions. Rai has always carried an image of honesty and frankness even within the BJP, but after turning a rebel, he has been accusing the BJP leaders of corruption.

Despite fighting from the Jamshedpur East seat as an independent candidate, Rai is now emerging as a rallying point to take on the ruling party. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren has reportedly hinted at making Saryu Rai`s case as an issue of honesty versus corruption against the BJP.

Soren has also appealed to all the non-BJP parties to support Rai in the Jamshedpur East seat.