Amidst reports of Congress’ confabulations with RJD for a secular alliance in Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP on Monday took a dig at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for Congress preferring Lalu Prasad over him and said such an ‘opportunistic’ alliance was not a cause of worry for it.
“Now Congress has kicked on their (JD(U)) back and is aligning with Lalu. History will not forgive Nitish Kumar for betraying mandate and breaking (ties) with BJP,” BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted on Monday.
“For the last 6 months Nitish Kumar was courting Cong, even going to Cong HQ to see off FM (P Chidambaram), praising Shahzada, taking certificate of secularism from Prime Minister,” he said taking a dig at Kumar.
Though official confirmation is awaited, there have been reports of confabulations between Congress and RJD to firm up ties for the 2014 parliamentary elections. The process is all set to get momentum as soon as RJD president Lalu Prasad comes out of AIIMS, Delhi, where he is undergoing treatment.
After the separation between BJP and JD(U) in mid-June, Congress was seen reaching out to Nitish Kumar. The Congress vote to Nitish Kumar government and UPA government’s encouraging response to the demand for special category status for the state initially pointed to their warmth.
But Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s telephone to Mr. Prasad after he came out of Ranchi jail in a fodder scam case on bail, indicated efforts to forge a tie-up.
Asserting that BJP is ‘unimpressed’ with the likely alliance between Congress-RJD-LJP, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav told PTI that there will be direct fight between Congress and BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections. “Congress has lost the people’s support as it is neck deep in corruption, while BJP has a clear cut advantage.”
“Both JD(U), which is enjoying Congress vote in the assembly and RJD, which is forging an alliance with that party (Congress) will have to pay dearly for their relation with it,” he said.
