patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday berated the "polarisation to save the corrupt" jibe of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom he also sought to tick off referring to his own stint at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Kumar, whose "national role" has become a matter of much speculation since his break-up with the BJP last month, however also sought to rule himself out, for the umpteenth time, of the Prime Ministerial race.
"Please leave aside such questions (chhodiye ye sab baat)," was the reply of Kumar when journalists approached him with queries at state headquarters of his JD(U), where gigantic posters have been put up to assert that the party's de facto leader was out to replicate across the nation what he has achieved in Bihar.
"Pradesh mein dikha, desh mein dikhega" (it has been seen in the state, now it will be seen across the country) was one of the many open-ended slogans that these posters have been inscribed with.
Kumar, who arrived barely a few hours ahead of a meeting of state executive office-bearers, said he had come to see preparations for the national executive meeting scheduled on Saturday and the national council a day later.
"Delegates will be coming from across the country. Today I came just to have a look at things. For the next two days I will be here full time," declared the septuagenarian, who has of late been demonstrating that he still has a lot of fire in his belly.
Earlier, he was asked elsewhere as to whether he thought Modi's acerbic remark at a function in Kerala was tantamount to sounding the bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls wherein the BJP is expected to be pitted against various regional parties with hardly any allies by its side.
"When he is the Prime Minister, he can go anywhere. But don't you know the political situation in Kerala," remarked Kumar with a chuckle, referring to the BJP's repeated failures to make a mark in the Left-ruled state where it has not even been able to snatch the number two slot from the Congress.
Incidentally, both the Left and the Congress are part of the ruling 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) government in Bihar.