Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar’s agriculture minister Narendra Singh on Wednesday sent down yet another googly.

Speaking in the state Assembly he said Jitan Ram Manjhi is here for the next 15 months and nobody can remove him. “If our party gets the majority in the next Assembly elections, he might be elected our leader,” he said as partymen look at him in surprise.

His statement is significant as he, in a way, dispelled the chance of the return of Nitish Kumar after the next Assembly election. Whether it was just an off the cuff remark or a well-planned speech to keep the former chief minister out of the race can not be said with certainty just now, it is a fact that Narendra Singh is used to indulge in plainspeaking.

When newsmen asked him outside the Assembly to explain what he said inside the House he hinted that even he can be a candidate for the post of chief minister after the next Assembly election.

Political observers are attributing the latest utterances to the growing marginalization of Nitish within the party. But it is also a fact that Narendra Singh had embarrassed the then chief minister earlier too when he, while sharing dais with the latter in Jamui during the election campaign a couple of months back, said that if he wished the Janata Dal (United) candidate, Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, would lose his deposit. Incidentally, Chaudhary lost the election.

On Wednesday Narendra, while replying to a three-hour long debate on the budgetary demand of over Rs 2,800 crore for the 2014-15 applauded the chief minister. He said Majhi’s vision for Bihar might be greater than that of former chief minister Nitish Kumar. He even asked the BJP to help Manjhi, the first Mushar chief minister of the state.

Narendra’s statement, however, came in response to the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition, Nand Kishore Yadav, who said he would hail Manjhi’s elevation as chief minister if the ruling JD(U) made his job permanent.

Nand Kishore Yadav said right now, the Janata Dal (United) leaders keep saying that they would contest the polls under the leadership of Nitish and that Manjhi is a stopgap arrangement.