75% of Muslims will vote for NDA if Nitish Kumar is made PM candidate: JD(U) MLC

A Janata Dal (United) leader has said that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) should declare Nitish Kumar as its prime ministerial candidate if it wants to return to power in 2019. 

JD(U) MLC Ghulam Rasool Balyawi, who earlier represented the party in Rajya Sabha, said 75% of Muslims in India would vote for the NDA if it were to declare Bihar Chief Minister as its PM candidate. 

Speaking to reporters in Patna, Balyawi also spoke on JD(U)'s stand on triple talaq bill. 

"Our stand id clear. Triple talaq is a religious issue which related to Muslim Personal Law. The government should not interfere with this," Balyawi said. 

The politically sensitive bill which seeks to make the practice of instant triple talaq among Muslim men a penal offence has come up for discussion in Lok Sabha on Thursday. 

The former MP said the JD(U) keeps clear of controversial issues as the government's job is to provide employment and security and to interfere in marriages. 

"The triple talaq bill interferes with our freedom and no individual or party has the right to interfere with our freedom. We will not accept the government's interference in this," he said. 

Weighing in on the Ram Temple issue, he said no Muslim has opposed the constriction but the matter is pending in the court. It's not a matter of a temple but it is a land issue, he added. 

Nitish Kumar's JD(U) is part of the BJP-led NDA in Bihar. Earlier this week, it finalised seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections with the BJP and the LJP. 

BJP and JD(U) will contest 17 seats each, while Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP will fight on the remaining six.

The JD(U), which had fought the 2014 polls independently, and the LJP, which was a BJP ally, had won two and six seats respectively.