Gaya: Senior-most BJP MLA and agriculture minister Prem Kumar, virtually staking claim to the Lok Sabha seat from the Nawada parliamentary constituency, has said he had served the state long enough and now aspired to serve the country from a bigger platform.
The seven-time winner of the Gaya Town Assembly seat said on Wednesday evening in Gaya that it was for the party leadership to take the final call in the matter.
According to the buzz in the political circles of Magadh division, Union minister Giriraj Singh, the present MP from Nawada, is likely to be shifted to Begusarai to confront student leader Kanhaiyya Kumar, who would probably be fielded as the mahagatbandhan candidate on the CPI symbol.
Party insiders say that social re-engineering was required in the Magadh division to correct the current imbalance and Prem Kumar, the prominent EBC leader of the party, eminently suited the re-engineering design.
There are four parliamentary seats in the Magadh division. The Gaya seat is reserved for SC candidates.
All the three general seats of the region are represented by upper caste NDA nominees. The imbalance has to be corrected.
Earlier, after Nitish Kumar's exit from the NDA in 2013, Prem Kumar's claim to the post of the Leader of Opposition on seniority grounds was overlooked and the post instead went to Nand Kishore Yadav. Prem's supporters saw it as injustice on the ground that besides being junior to him in the Assembly, Nand Kishore was not in a position to transfer Yadav votes to the NDA kitty, while EBCs, the group to which Prem belonged, whole-heartedly supported the NDA.
Asked about his favourite parliamentary constituency, the BJP's EBC face in the state said he would prefer any of the seats of the Magadh division, more so Nawada.
"If the party decides to field him from anywhere else, he does not have any problem," said Prem.
Refusing to comment on the likely candidature of Prem Kumar from Nawada, senior BJP leader and former minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said it was for the party leadership to decide who to field and from where.
Asked about the recent faux pas in which Arshad Mohsin, a controversial resident of Gaya facing criminal charges, attired in typical Arabic robes, met the minister posing as an adviser of fruit and vegetable dealers of Kuwait, the minister said he had already lodged a complaint with the police and the man would be brought to book.
"He would be more careful in future," said Prem.
"He would follow the protocol meant for visitors from abroad and only visitors coming through official diplomatic channels would be allowed entry. He only had the interest of Bihar farmers in mind while meeting the 'cheat'," said Prem.
