The Janata Dal (United) said on Thursday that Nitish Kumar was the chief minister by popular choice and he shall continue to be in office till the time people of Bihar wanted him as their leader. The JD(U) was reacting to a claim by Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha Wednesday that during a personal conversation with him, the chief minister had expressed his reluctance to run for another term after his ongoing tenure ends in 2020.

"We do not have to say anything about the veracity of Kushwaha's claim. What we wish to underscore is that Nitish Kumar became the chief minister not out of his own personal desire but because the people of Bihar wanted to see him in that role. And they have been reaffirming their faith in his leadership by voting him back to power," JD(U) national general secretary Shyam Rajak said. Rajak, who is the party's deputy leader in the state assembly, also took a swipe at Kushwaha who had been critical of Kumar for some time but has started calling him a "big brother" of late.