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Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Nitish takes potshots at Yogi over his infiltrator comment
Kumar, who took umbrage at the UP CM’s no-holds-barred attack on Muslims, stopped short of naming Adityanath in his public rally
The ruling Janata Dal (United) and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), appear to be at loggerheads ahead of the crucial third and the final phase of the Bihar elections for the remaining 78 seats, which go to polls on Saturday (November 7), over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar obliquely took a dig at his Uttar Pradesh (UP) counterpart Yogi Adityanath for the latter’s comment on Wednesday during the poll campaign that “infiltrators will be thrown out from the country”.
CM Kumar, who addressed a rally at Kochadhaman in Kishanganj district, which falls in the state’s Seemanchal region, indirectly took potshots at the firebrand UP CM for his statement on CAA, 2019 and infiltrators at a rally in Katihar district.
Katihar is part of the four Muslim-dominated districts that make up Seemanchal, including Araria, Purnia and Kishanganj.
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All 24 assembly seats in the Seemanchal region will go to polls on November 7.
Kumar, who took umbrage at the UP CM’s no-holds-barred attack on Muslims, stopped short of naming Adityanath in his public rally.
“Who is spreading misinformation and talking nonsense? Who will throw out people from this country? All of them belong to this nation. But some are indulging in baseless talks. From the time I have got a mandate to serve the public, I have tried to unite everybody and create an environment of brotherhood and harmony. Some people want to create disharmony in the society in a bid to ensure that they don’t need to work. Our objective is to live in harmony and usher in all-round growth and development in the state,” the CM said at the rally.
On Wednesday, Adityanath said at the rally in Katihar that the government had introduced CAA, 2019 to ensure prosecuted Hindu, Jain, Christian, and Buddhist minorities in Muslim-majority nations in south Asia such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan get citizenship in India and also committed to throw out infiltrators, who are making a sinister bid to breach the nation’s security.
“I know Katihar district is hit hard by infiltrations,” he said, in a veiled reference to illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators, who have allegedly made the Seemanchal region their home taking advantage of the porous Indo-Bangla border in north Bengal, which is located close to Kishanganj district.
The video clip of the CM’s speech was put out on the JD (U)’s official Twitter handle and also carried the following comment: “It is our dharma to take all people aboard. This is our culture. If everybody walks in unison, Bihar will progress.”
The remark underscored that Kumar is loathe to shed his secular credentials and also implied his desperate bid to woo Muslim voters in the Seemanchal region.
This was the first time during the election campaign, which never reached a feverish pitch because of the unprecedented coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, that Kumar took exception to any utterances by BJP leaders’ off-the-cuff remark about infiltration, a sensitive issue for Muslims in Bihar.
The CM’s reaction reinforced his uneasy ties with the BJP, which seeks to polarise voters on religious lines. He chose the Kishanganj rally to blunt the UP CM’s assertions in a bid to ensure that Muslim voters from the district, which is considered a Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) stronghold, don’t jettison the JD (U).
Earlier, Kumar had opposed the Centre’s contentious National register of Citizens (NRC). In February, he had moved a resolution against NRC in the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly and vowed not to implement it.
The JD (U) and the BJP are contesting 10 and 11 seats, respectively, in the Seemanchal region.
However, the challenger, Grand Alliance (GA) or the mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties, and the third alternative, Grand Democratic Secular Front (GDSP), an alliance of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Rajiv Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), are likely to make a dent in the JD(U) and the BJP’s poll prospects in the Seemanchal region.
Owaisi has been raising CAA, 2019 and NRC in a bid to alter the poll narrative and garner sympathies of Muslims, his party’s core support base.
