New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and Union minister of state for human resources Upendra Kushwaha said that anyone could become the chief minister of Bihar after the 2020 Bihar assembly elections. He has up the ante with this in the state.

“In a democracy, even a commoner can don the chair of chief minister. That is the beauty of democracy,” he told reporters at the RLSP office in Patna while announcing the party’s programmes from November 28, the death anniversary of Jyotirao Phule, a social activist, thinker and social reformer.

Kushwaha also made it clear that his party’s alliance was with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and not with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United).

The RLSP, JD(U) and the BJP are partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Kushwaha had on October 31 created a furore when he said that Kumar had confided in him that he (Kumar) did not want to continue as chief minister beyond 2020. However, the JD(U) immediately trashed the remark, saying “the CM’s chair is no rasgulla and it is decided by people’s choice”.

Kumar had also responded curtly to a question from reporters in Patna on Kushwaha’s claim, saying “Baatchit ka star itna neeche mat giraeeye (don’t allow the level of debate to stoop so low).”

Kushwaha had taken it as a personal insult and hit back at Kumar, saying he had been hurt by Nitish’s remark, which, he said, referred to him as neech (of low ranking).

“We will observe Jyotirao Phule’s death anniversary as ‘Unch-Neech Mansikta Virodh Diwas’ (against high-and-low mindset day) as the great revolutionary had struggled to eradicate the mindset of ‘high and low’ in the society and fought against societal injustice and inequality,” Kushwaha said, clearly stating that he was ‘deeply hurt’ by the statement of Kumar.