Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) battling hard to gain power in Bihar has rejected any possibility of joining hands with its erstwhile partner Nitish Kumar who currently is in saddle with the backing of his one-time arch-rival Lalu Prasad, president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
“There arises no question of any electoral alliance with Nitish Kumar who has picked up all the bad habits in the company of Lalu Prasad. No such possibility … never,” federal communication and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media at a Press conference late Wednesday evening in East Champaran district, some 160km east of Patna.
“How can there be such talks when Kumar who used the BJP to end ‘dark years’ of RJD regime has now fallen in Lalu Prasad’s company and picked up all the bad habits?” Prasad asked adding the law and order situation had totally collapsed in Bihar and incidents of kidnapping had once again soared.
The BJP “clarification” comes after Kumar was seen cosying up with the BJP since taking over the reins of the state afresh in February this year.
In the past three months since he got back on the state throne, Kumar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and federal finance minister Arun Jaitely twice even as he also dined with his old BJP pal Jaitely each time he was in Delhi.
Apart from this, he was also caught undertaking an aerial survey of the storm-ravaged eastern Bihar in the company of federal home minister Rajnath Singh. What was surprising about their meeting was that both were seen heaping praises on each other even as the issues of storm victims took the back seat.
Earlier in March this year, Kumar had attended a function organised by the BJP during Ram Nawami, a popular Indian festival marking the birth anniversary of Hindu deity Ram.
The ‘clandestine’ meeting between Kumar and BJP leaders was one of the reasons which sowed the seeds of bitterness between Kumar and RJD chief Prasad.
The RJD leadership was reportedly hugely surprised and angry over how Kumar had been frequently meeting the BJP leaders on the pretext of seeking special financial assistance for Bihar from the centre while on similar ground, the Janata Dal-United had sacked former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Manjhi too has openly questioned Kumar’s frequent meetings with the BJP leaders.