E-Paper
'New council a slap in face of people of Bihar': Prashant Kishor's jibe at Nitish Kumar
Prashant Kishor also held a silent introspection after his party's poll drubbing in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections.
Ahead of portfolio allocation for the new Bihar cabinet, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor took a jibe at Nitish Kumar accusing him for making “corrupt, criminal politicians” as ministers. The poll strategist-turned politician's remarks come a day after 26 ministers took oath along with the JD(U) supremo at Patna's Gandhi Maidan.
"The new cabinet of Nitish Kumar, which took oath on Thursday, is full of corrupts and criminals. I must say that this council of ministers is a slap in the face of the people of Bihar. It's like rubbing salt on the wound as several corrupt leaders were inducted," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI, week after drubbing in the recently held assembly elections in the state.
Also read: ‘Emotionally exhausting’: Al Falah University students' kin unsure of next steps amid terror probe
Kishor also said his party will launch the 'Bihar Navnirman Sankalp Yatra' on January 15, during which Jan Suraaj Party workers will visit all houses in the state.
The portfolios will be announced on Friday, an earlier HT report quoted a senior JD(U) leader who asked not to be named.
Along with Nitish Kumar, 26 others took oath of office on Thursday to be part of the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led cabinet of Bihar.
Also read: 'Meri last wish hai...': Delhi teen who died by suicide alleging torture by teachers
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Samrat Choudhury and Vijay Kumar Sinha also took oath on Thursday and are expected to continue as deputy chief ministers in the new cabinet as well.
Ministers in the new cabinet led by Nitish include eight from the Janata Dal (United), 14 from the BJP, two from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and one each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Also read: ‘Targeted harassment’ by teachers: Distressing revelations in Delhi teen suicide
Three women ministers, including former minister Leshi Singh of the JD(U) and new entrants Shreyashi Singh (BJP) and Rama Nishad (BJP), took oath on Thursday, will also be included in the new cabinet.
Zama Khan of the JD(U) is the sole Muslim face as the Chainpur lawmaker has been retained from the previous NDA government.
Prashant Kishor's introspection after poll debacle
As Nitish took his tenth oath as the chief minister of Bihar, Kishor held a silent introspection (Maun Vrat) at Bhitiharwa Gandhi Ashram as his party drew a blank in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections that ended in massive victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with 202 out of 243 seats.
Following the massive upset for Kishor's party in debut polls, he went over his decision to not contest, and seemingly regretted it. "You can consider that a mistake," Kishor told NDTV in an interview on Wednesday as opened up about the party's poll debacle.
Also read: Kolkata earthquake: Panic after strong tremors, people rush out to streets
"If I knew that I would lose, why would I put my resources, money and credibility at stake? I would have easily used all these resources to become an MP or MLA. If I knew that the Jan Suraaj would lose, why would I take such a big risk? I never knew that the party would get 4% of the vote. I never did my own survey, I played it blind," he said.
