July 1: Non-committal on its chief ministerial face but confident about forming the government after the Assembly polls, the state and national BJP leaders today lambasted the government of Nitish Kumar and his newfound friend Lalu Prasad.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said in Munger the state government had lost its credibility and the wind was blowing in favour of his party in the state. Miles away, the party's national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said in Patna the BJP's parliamentary board would decide on its chief ministerial candidate, asserting there was no dearth of able leaders in the organisation.

Hussain, on a whirlwind tour of different districts of the state, said: "There is a leadership crisis in both the RJD and the JDU. These parties never think beyond Lalu or Nitish but ours has a battery of leaders and the party will decide its chief ministerial face when the time comes."

Shahnawaz, the only national spokesperson of the BJP from Bihar, made the remark to counter the JDU and the RJD's attacks on his party for not projecting any chief ministerial candidate. RJD chief Lalu Prasad had termed the BJP a " Nirvansh (a person without any heir) party", while chief minister Nitish Kumar dared the BJP to announce its chief ministerial candidate.

A source claimed that Shahnawaz's statement would create confusion in the minds of several BJP leaders, including former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and C.P. Thakur, who have indirectly expressed their wish to lead the party in the ensuing Assembly elections.

Shahnawaz, said the decision whether or not to project a chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly polls rested on the party's 12-member parliamentary board comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and headed by BJP national president Amit Shah.

He also attacked chief minister Nitish and RJD chief Lalu for cheating the minorities (read Muslim). "Lalu joined hands with Nitish after lambasting him for the past 10 years, with a claim to keep away the communal forces (read BJP). If the RJD chief is so worried about the minorities, why didn't his party project a Muslim face for the chief minister's post," he asked.

The BJP national spokesperson's statement has come at time when the JDU and the RJD are on the line of fire for not giving ticket to any Muslim candidate in the Bihar Legislative Council polls.

Shahnawaz also said Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje would not quit over the Lalit Modi controversy, as demanded by the Congress.

Boosting the morale of the NDA workers at the Munger Town Hall this afternoon, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore said: "The JDU government has failed to solve people's problems and was now just trying to retain power. The government's earlier slogan of 'good governance with development and justice' had become a thing of the past."

LJP leader Ram Chandra Paswan also addressed the meeting of the NDA workers.