Former CM takes on Nitish Kumar in first rally since return to Bihar

Training his guns at Kumar, the former chief minister said, “I had said ensure visarjan (immersion) for the NDA government. Now, Nitish is saying I can get him shot. Why will I do it? He will himself die.”

At his first election rally in six years, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday was unsparing in his attacks at arch rival and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of forming the government after 2020 assembly polls in the state by deceit.

Lalu Prasad, who returned to Bihar last Sunday, has been away from the state since December 2017. (PTI)

“People of Bihar had made Tejashwi the chief minister. But Nitish Kumar formed government through cheating and manipulation. Had I not been outside the state, it would not have happened,” he said at Idgah Maidan in Tarapur assembly constituency, where voting for bypoll is scheduled for October 30, along with Kushweshwar Asthan.

Lalu Prasad, who returned to Bihar last Sunday, has been away from the state since December 2017, when he was convicted and jailed in Jharkhand in connection with the fodder scam cases. He last campaigned in an election during the 2015 assembly poll, which RJD and CM Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) fought in alliance.

RJD and JD (U) are ranged against each other in bypolls for two assembly seats, both won in 2020 by the JD (U), in a fight that has become triangular after Congress too decided to field candidates from both seats.

The RJD chief, who flew to Tarapur on a helicopter, also addressed a meeting at Kushweshwar Asthan in the afternoon.