The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said it was not averse to supporting Ramvilas Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party emerged as a big force in Bihar.
"If you have a deadlocked assembly, not just a hung assembly, one of the options is to negotiate with someone who can form the government," party general secretary Arun Jaitley said when asked whether his party would support Paswan to keep the Rashtriya Janata Dal out of power.
Earlier, Jaitely's party colleague, Shahnawaz Hussain, said as much.
The National Democratic alliance (comprising the BJP and the Janata Dal-United) had offered Paswan the chief minister's post even before the elections, Hussain said in New Delhi.
"If Paswan sticks to his position of not supporting the RJD in any situation, then we will form the government. JD-U chief Nitish Kumar had made an offer (of chief ministership) to him. In Bihar our fight is not to get power but to oust the RJD and free the people from its misrule," Hussain said.