Patna: Two days after he dramatically embraced the BJP, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday proved his majority in the Bihar assembly while the RJD protested in the house during the confidence vote.
Contrary to fears, no cross-voting took place during the show of strength. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar sailed through with 131 votes in his favour and 108 against.
Soon after the assembly met, Nitish Kumar moved a resolution to seek a trust vote.
Apparently convinced that the JD-U-BJP government had adequate support to win the motion, RJD members protested in and out of the house.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) accused Nitish Kumar of insulting the mandate of 2015 by joining hands with the BJP and dumping his election allies, the RJD and the Congress, who made him the Chief Minister.
Asserting that he would not tolerate injustice and corruption in his government, Nitish Kumar attacked the RJD by saying that secularism could not be used as a cover to hide corruption.
“Secularism has to do with ideology and it is not a cover-up for corruption. People should not preach secularism to me. I know well what the situation is,” Nitish Kumar said in the Bihar assembly ahead of the floor test that his government won 131-108.
The JD-U leader said the state’s people had given him a mandate for transparency and development.
“I am secular through my thoughts. I support transparency in politics. If a few people want to use politics to acquire properties then I won’t support them,” the Chief Minister, who is also President of Janata Dal-United, said.
He said his new alliance with the National Democratic Alliance aimed for Bihar’s development.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who had been the Deputy Chief Minister in the previous government, said voters had been stabbed in the back.
“People who voted for the Grand Alliance are being betrayed. Nitish Kumar got the mandate against the BJP but joined hands with it to form the government,” he said.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who yesterday took over as Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, accused Kumar of using him as a pawn to go over to the BJP.
“You (Nitish Kumar) used me as a pawn to go over to the BJP. You have gone from saying ‘He Ram’ (in consternation) when you saw the BJP, to saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” Tejashwi Yadav said in his over 40-minute speech in the Assembly.
Tejashwi Yadav also accused the Janata Dal-United President of “insulting” the mandate of the people time and again. “In 2013, he dumped the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and expelled the BJP ministers from his cabinet, and now again he has repeated it. The JD-U and BJP-led NDA joining hands to form the government is an insult to democracy,” he said.
He said the Grand Alliance of JD-U, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress was given the mandate of five years by the people in the 2015 Assembly elections, and it had been against the BJP.
Tejashwi Yadav said it was Nitish Kumar who had called for making a “sangh mukt” (RSS free) India but had himself bowed down before the RSS. “Nitish Kumar was with the BJP earlier too, but this time he has proved he is anti-Backward Classes and anti-Dalit by rejoining them.”
He reminded Nitish Kumar that in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the JD-U had managed to win only two seats thanks to the RJD, and the RJD had won four seats despite the BJP wave.
Tejashwi Yadav said Nitish Kumar had never discussed his resignation with him over corruption charges. “If he had, I would have thought about it. I was taking legal opinion and I told him so. Nitish Kumar is still my uncle, but he betrayed me. If Nitish had asked me to resign, I would have thought about it,” he said.
He charged that BJP leader Sushil Modi is also facing cases. “So why did he take oath (as Deputy Chief Minister)? Why was the timing of the oath-taking ceremony changed? How did PM Narendra Modi tweet so quickly on Nitish Kumar’s resignation?” he asked.
