Chapra (Bihar): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar has said he had wanted Lok Sabha member Rajiv Ranjan
Singh Lalan to continue as Bihar JD(U) chief.
"We wanted him (Lalan) to continue in the post but he
refused," Kumar said breaking his silence over the issue.
"Lalanji is my friend and an old party associate. I tried
to convince him but he was reluctant to continue for the
second term," the Chief Minister said yesterday.
Kumar expressed confidence that senior party leader
Vijay Choudhary, who replaced Lalan, would run the party
taking other leaders into confidence.
Singh`s resignation from the post of state party
chief, submitted to the national JD(U) president Sharad Yadav
on February 1, was accepted on Sunday after he refused to take
back his papers. However, Lalan would continue to serve the
party as an ordinary member.
Earlier in Siwan yesterday, Kumar announced that Jiradei,
the native village of India`s first president Dr Rajendra
Prasad, would be developed as a tourist site.
He visited the late president`s study room and examined
his personal articles.
Kumar said the state government had plans for the
development of religious and historic sites of academic and
research interests and Jiradei was one such.
PTI
