PATNA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has made it clear that Nitish Kumar will continue as the chief minister of Bihar after the assembly elections due later this year, the JD(U) supremo's son Nishant claimed on Tuesday.

The 47-year-old interacted with journalists here at the engagement ceremony of his cousin, where his father was also present, though he took no questions from reporters.

Nishant reacted with surprise when his attention was drawn to the opposition's claim that after the elections, the BJP could elbow out his father, as it was fed up with playing second fiddle to the 74-year-old politician.

"There is no doubt about my father continuing as the CM after the NDA's win in the polls. Amit Shah uncle said so when he recently came here. Samrat Choudhary (Deputy CM) has said the same," Nishant said.

Notably, Shah was in Bihar last month when he shared the stage with the state's longest-serving chief minister at a government function. The two leaders were also together at an NDA partners' meeting held at the CM's residence.

Nishant dodged queries about speculations that he was all set to enter active politics and may even contest the upcoming elections, though he urged the people to give the NDA "a much bigger mandate than that of 2020", when the JD(U)-BJP combine had won more than 200 seats of the 243-strong assembly.

When he was asked about the repeated allegation by the leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav that Nitish Kumar was not physically and mentally sound, Nishant shot back, "My father is 100 per cent fit. He is capable of running the government for another five years."