Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has joined hands with the Congress and the RJD, after dumping the BJP, for realising his Prime Ministerial ambitions, which he keeps having “every three years”.
Addressing a rally at Lauria in West Champaran district, the senior BJP leader claimed that the JD(U) supremo has agreed to make RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav the next chief minister and asserted that he should announce when he intends to do so.
Shah, who was speaking in Balmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency, charged Kumar with plunging Bihar into ‘jungle raj’ for which the latter used to blame the previous Congress and RJD rule, and that the BJP was now disgusted with the former ally’s flip flops and its “doors are closed forever”.
“After fighting his entire life, since the days of Jay Prakash Narayan, against the Congress and ‘jungle raj’, Nitish Kumar has now sat on the lap of Lalu Prasad, the pioneer of ‘jungle raj’, and at the feet of Sonia Gandhi.
He has become ‘avsarwaadi’ (opportunist) from being ‘vikaswaadi’ (pro-development) for his Prime Ministerial ambitions,” he said.
“Enough of ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’, the BJP’s doors are closed forever for Nitish Kumar,” he said.
Shah likened the JD(U)’s alliance with the RJD to “attempts at mixing oil with water”.
“Water and oil cannot blend. So, here we have the RJD, like oil rising to the surface and the JD(U), like water, disappearing beneath,” said Shah, in an indirect reference to apprehensions that Kumar’s party was getting overshadowed by the domineering new ally.
He also alleged that at the time of forming the alliance last year, the JD(U) leader had entered into a “clandestine agreement” with Prasad, the RJD supremo, to make his son Tejashwi Yadav the chief minister.
“This has led to a lot of confusion in the JD(U) itself,” said Shah, indirectly referring to the recent exit of Upendra Kushwaha.
“Doubts have emerged in people’s minds too. If he (Kumar) has struck such a deal, he should make public the date on which he intends to hand over the charge to his deputy and plunge the state into ‘jungle raj’ which he had vowed to root out,” Shah said.
The Union home minister recalled that the BJP had won far greater number of seats in the last assembly polls than the JD(U) but Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept up his promise to back Kumar for another term in office.
Shah, who is widely regarded as the BJP’s principal strategist, said, “Nitish and Lalu cannot pull Bihar out of the vortex of backwardness. It is high time that the BJP formed its own government in the state with full majority. The tone can be set in the next Lok Sabha polls.”
The Union home minister also made a reference to central assistance provided to the state by the Narendra Modi government, claiming that it far outweighed the support received by Bihar during the rule of Congress-led UPA in which Lalu Prasad was himself a minister.
“Nitish Kumar can’t stop demographic change in the border areas of Bihar. Elect Narendra Modi again in 2024 with two-third majority and we will put brakes on such attempts,” he said.
In his speech that lasted nearly half an hour, Shah also touched upon bold steps such as the surgical strike, the Balakot air strike, abrogation of Article 370 and the ban on Islamist organisation PFI.
