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'Till the day I'm alive…': Nitish Kumar amid verbal spat with Prashant Kishor
Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar, severed his ties with the BJP government two months ago, accusing them of attempting to split the party.
Amid a political tussle, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday put his foot down and declared that he will not align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “till the day I'm alive”. Kumar, who has been exchanging barbs with political strategist Prashant Kishor over his frequent change of associations, asserted that he would not go back with the former ally, who he claimed used probe agencies for targeting political opponents like RJD president Lalu Prasad.
Speaking at a college function in Samastipur district of Bihar, Nitish charged the BJP leadership with arrogance and wistfully recalled the era of past leaders of the same party. “So different were the leaders of the same party of the past like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in whose cabinet I had the privilege to work,” the chief minister said, remembering Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
“In contrast, those currently at the helm of affairs listen to nobody, and have scant respect for any person and his or her concerns. I want to assert that I will not go back to them till the day I am alive,” the JD(U) leader said.
The comments came after repeated jibes by strategist-turned-politician Kishor that no one can take Kumar for his words and that he can change sides any time.
Kumar was also unsettled after his ally Lalu Prasad was named in yet another scam – a plan he claimed was hatched by the saffron party.
“They lodged a case against Lalu ji, which caused me to sever my ties with him. Nothing came of it. And now that we are together again, they are lodging fresh cases. You can figure out the style of functioning of these people,” Kumar told the gathering.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and his family members were recently charge-sheeted in a land for jobs scam, pertaining to his tenure as railway minister in the UPA-1 government. A few years ago, Prasad was named in an IRCTC land for hotels scam, in which Tejashwi Yadav, then serving his first tenure as Deputy CM, was also named as an accused.
Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar, severed his ties with the BJP government two months ago, accusing them of attempting to split the party. He then formed a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ with the RJD, Congress and Left parties in Bihar and vowed, “We are all socialists by conviction. We will remain together and work for the progress of the nation”.
Kumar has become a strong votary of “opposition unity” – led by the Congress for the 2024 general elections – and claims that it would ensure the defeat of the BJP, which at present appears formidable.
(With agency inputs)
