Nitish always keeps nation first, says BJP leader

Raipur, June 28 (IANS) Amid cracks surfacing in Bihar's ruling Grand Alliance -- comprising Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress -- a senior BJP leader said he does not rule out another stint of the BJP-JD(U) regime in the state.

Talking to IANS, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national Vice President Prabhat Jha said that Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has always kept the nation's interests first.

"He (Nitish Kumar) is a matured and reliable politician, who has always kept nation's interests above all other issues," Jha said in an interview when he was on a trip to Chhattisgarh this week.

"Bihar witnessed tremendous rise when Nitish Kumar was in power in the state with the BJP and I don't rule out possibility of one more stint of the BJP-JD(U) regime," added Jha, who is also the party's Rajya Sabha member.

"I personally congratulate Nitish Kumar for taking an excellent decision to extend support of his party to NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind," he said.

Asked to comment on the rising anti-India protests in Kashmir valley during the current BJP-PDP rule, the 60-year-old journalist-turned-politician remarked: The nation inherited Kashmir dispute from country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who mishandled the Kashmir issue."

"The BJP will never compromise on national security and nation's integrity in Kashmir. The BJP-led central government will do its best to settle the Kashmir issue forever," said Jha, who had been the President of the BJP's Madhya Pradesh unit till December 2012.