Bhopal, November 11: Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti said on Wednesday that her party became the "elder brother" in the NDA alliance in Bihar only through the "ladder" of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

She was speaking to reporters here a day after the BJP won more seats in Bihar Assembly elections than its ally, Kumar-led Janata Dal (United). Also Read | Domestic Flight in India Allowed to Increase Operations From Existing to 60% to 70% of Pre-COVID Levels, Says Hardeep Singh Puri.

When asked should there be a BJP chief minister in the northern state now, Bharti said, "I don't want to get into this. "The election was contested under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, and you will recall that his leadership had been announced by me in 2005 when I was BJP general secretary in- charge of Bihar. And we were able to form a government there," she said. Also Read | Bihar Exit Polls Proved Wrong, Axis-My India Apologises for Inaccurate Election Result Predictions.

"We (BJP) have been able to become elder brother from the younger one by climbing up Nitish's ladder. You cannot pull down the ladder which was used for climbing," she added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party had made it clear that the elections would be fought under Kumar's leadership, and now the JD(U) leader had to decide what to do next because Modi had already decided, Bharti said. "I will be happy to see Nitish as CM there," she added.

Bharti also had words of praise for the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashvi Yadav. "Tejashvi is a good boy. But, Bihar was saved narrowly. Tejashvi cannot run the government....Ultimately, the government would have been run by (his father) Lalu Prasad Yadav and company," she claimed.

Like Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh `played spoilsport' for Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, Lalu Prasad would have played the same role in Bihar, Bharti alleged. She praised Kamal Nath, who heads the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, for the way he led his party in the assembly byelections.

"There would have been no problem had Kamal Nath run the government the way he fought the election. He fought this election very tactfully," the BJP leader said. The ruling BJP won 19 out of 28 seats in MP bypolls, while the Congress won nine.

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