PATNA: Opposition BJP today came down heavily on outgoing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “plunging Bihar into a crisis” merely due to his “deep hatred” for Narendra Modi and said saffron triumph would be complete in the state only with a victory in next year’s Assembly poll.
Starting a debate on the trust vote moved by new Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi at a special session of Bihar Assembly, leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav said change of guard in Bihar was a “side effect” of BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha poll.
“Even as Narendra Modi has not taken oath as Prime Minister ‘ache din’ (good days) have arrived for you by becoming Chief Minister,” Yadav told Manjhi reminding him that he owed his chair to BJP PM designate.
“Had Nitish Kumar not be dealt this blow in the general election he would have never resigned to make way for you to become the CM,” he told Manjhi.
The Opposition leader contested Kumar’s claim of high moral ground by resigning and hoisting a dalit to CM chair and said “it was ‘dharam sankat’ (difficult choice) for you to greet Narendra Modi as PM with bouquet and receive him so you chose an escape route.”
Amid exchange of barbs between BJP and JD (U) members, Yadav took potshots at the efforts towards realignment of JD (U), RJD and Congress against BJP in the state for the sake of power.
“Nitish Kumar left no opportunity to describe Congress as mother of corruption and Lalu Prasad dubbed Kumar as ‘Babool’ tree whom he nourished wrongly…now they all have joined hands in the name of secularism to keep BJP out of power,” the leader of opposition said, terming the alliance as “immoral.”
RJD with 21 MLAs and Congress (4) have pledged support to Manjhi government for the trust vote.
With their backing along with support of 2 Independents and 1 CPI MLA and its own strength of 117, including Speaker, the JD (U) enjoys the support of 145 legislators in the House whose effective strength at present is 237.
Yadav also slammed Nitish Kumar for scoring brownie points by nominating Manjhi, a mahadalit, the poorest section among dalits, on the CM’s chair.
“Even after putting Manjhi on CM chair, Kumar has said that JD (U) will go to the Assembly poll next year under his leadership and he will return to take responsibility if the party receives people’s mandate…Manjhi is a pawn put on chair as a stop gap arrangement till then and take all the blames for his misdoing,” he said slamming Kumar.
As Yadav spoke for one hour, BJP MLAs all wearing saffron caps, raised slogans in support of Narendra Modi.–PTI
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