The appointment of Renu Devi as the new Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, along with Tarkishore Prasad, is seen by several poll pundits as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s endeavour to acknowledge both women as well as Extremely Backward Class voters who seemed to have voted in favour of the BJP-JD(U) alliance in the state. Renu Devi belongs to the Nonia community—classified as EBC—which have so far stood with Nitish Kumar. The new deputy CM of Bihar spoke to The Daily Guardian for an exclusive chat, where she discussed the future of the NDA government in the state and said that BJP members will always continue working, regardless of their designations. Excerpts:
Q: You’ve been with the BJP for quite some time. Today would definitely be a day for celebration.
A: I would like to congratulate all our workers and thank all senior leaders in the party for giving me this honour and this opportunity. We are all workers of the party and, as workers, our job is to continue working. Such honours keep coming and going but we need to keep working to move forward. The BJP comes to power not to play politics, but to work for the welfare of the state, and that is what we’ll be doing.
Q: There was quite a bit of discussion about the CM’s post and even the Deputy CM. How do you see that?
A: The NDA is like a family. Even if there were some discussions, all matters will remain within our family and we are more than capable of solving them. We fought the elections with Nitish Kumar as our CM candidate, the top leadership in our party has also said this. Our family is intact and working together.
Q: The NDA has gotten a clear mandate. What can we expect from this government in the next five years?
A: We are all working towards developing Bihar. For that, we needed a clear mandate, which we have gotten, and now we plan to turn our state into a self-reliant one. The rate of evolution for Bihar has to continue and be bettered, if possible.
Q: Former Dy CM Sushil Modi has been removed and new faces, including yours, have been brought to the front. Why so?
A: Sushil Modi has not been removed—it isn’t like that. He is our guardian and is overseeing the expansion of our party. He did what he thought was necessary to help our party grow more. At the end of the day, we are all just workers, and these posts come and go.
Q: Your message to the people of Bihar?
A: Our motto of ‘all together, develop together’ for a self-reliant Bihar is what we are working towards and you’ll see the results over the next five years.