The NDA will win over 150 seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader and Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said here on Thursday. He also predicted that the NDA will do better than in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in his home State, where elections are slated for November.

Asked if he is in the race for the CM’s post, the LJP leader, who switched from the UPA to the BJP-led NDA just before the 2014 elections, denied it. He had been offered the post thrice earlier, but had refused as he was more inclined to play a role in national politics, he added.

“We will put a stamp on whoever is chosen as Chief Minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said the LJP leader, whose party reportedly plans to contest 100 seats of the total 243 Assembly seats in alliance with the BJP. Paswan was interacting at a ‘Meet the Press’ event hosted by the Press Club of India here.

Lashing out at the coming together of the Janata Parivar, of which he was a member earlier, Paswan compared Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Prasad to neem and karela (bitter guard). There is “no threat whatsoever from these two”, as “just meeting of hearts” does not reflect on poll outcomes, he said, adding that there is no unity at the ground level.

Nitish and Lalu represent neither caste nor class ( na jaat ke neta , na jamaat ke ), he said.

Asked why the NDA government had not released the data from the caste-based census, Paswan once again attacked the Nitish-Lalu duo, saying: “They are no messiahs of Mandal politics”.

Lalu, who tom-toms his “secular credentials”, was in fact, “diffident” about arresting LK Advani during his Rath Yatra in 1990, as he feared communal riots could break out, Paswan said.

He said the Vyapam scam was a condemnable incident. “It is not just a scam, since murders are happening. But it will have no impact on the Bihar elections,” he added.

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