Asked if the party will direct its chief ministers in the other states to follow the example of Nitish Kumar, Jaitley said, "Good governance provided by Nitish Kumar needs to be emulated. This is a victory of merit over family rule. The people of Bihar have rejected the family rule in favour of good governance and development," he said.
Also see: Live Bihar Trends
"This is a victory of the National Democratic Alliance and it has proved that if there is an alternative to the Congress party at the Centre, it's the NDA," Jaitley said in a press conference held at the BJP headquarters at Ashoka Road in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The BJP leader, however, ducked a question from rediff.com on whether Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be invited at Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony on Friday. "This question is not relevant in today's context," is all that he said.
According to Jaitley, the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal suffered a defeat as they failed to read the mood of the people. "Both failed to write a proper script in accordance with the mood of the people for Bihar elections," he pointed out.
The BJP leader then went on to describe the emphatic mandate for the Nitish Kumar government as not only astonishing but beyond the imagination of the BJP-JDU combine.
"The newly-elected legislature members of the JDU and BJP will elect their leaders on Thursday and thereafter the two parties will meet to elect the chief minister. The choice of the leaders is almost certain," he said, indicating that Nitish Kumar would continue as CM and Sushil Modi would be his deputy.
When a journalist posed a question on why the BJP was not taking any decision on Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa for his alleged involvement in a land scam, Jaitley said that a judicial probe will be conducted in the matter. "The party is also willing to offer a joint parliamentary committee to probe the charges against the Karnataka CM," he added.
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