Paswan to Oppn: Don't waste time, no vacancy for PM post till 2024

Taking a dig at opposition parties' unity efforts for the 2019 general elections, Union Minister and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan said that they should not waste their time as there is no vacancy for the prime minister's post till 2024.

Briefing reporters following his party's national executive meeting on April 29 and 30 in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Paswan hailed the "pro-Dalit" measures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed confidence that the incumbent PM would remain in charge till 2024.

Comparing his former colleagues-turned-rivals, who are now in different parties, to an orange fruit which looks whole from the outside but is divided inside, Paswan said, "People like Nitish Kumar (JD-U), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Lalu Prasad (RJD) can never be one.

They should stop wasting their time in looking for a prime ministerial candidate. There is no vacancy."

The next Lok Sabha elections are due in 2019 and the BJP- led NDA is in a buoyant mood following its massive win in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Paswan raked up corruption allegations against Lalu Prasad and his two sons, both ministers in the Nitish government, and said that the JD(U) chief is troubled over this.