Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday warned party workers to be wary of the Congress in the forthcoming elections in Jharkhand scheduled to be held in five phases from November 27.
Speaking at the two-day meeting of the JD (U) held in Bokaro in Jharkhand, Mr. Kumar said that “a better understanding between the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) during the Haryana Assembly polls would have prevented the Congress from securing a foothold in the State.”
The Indian National Lok Dal under Om Prakash Chautala had bagged 31 of the 90 seats in the recently concluded Assembly polls, while the Congress had received a setback by securing only 40 seats, six short of a simple majority.
Mr. Kumar criticized the Congress saying that the veil had come off the “dirty politics practiced by the Congress, whose effects were eminently visible during the Maharashtra Assembly polls.”
He said “the Congress had succeeding in winning by default as there had been a weak Opposition in Maharashtra.”
The Bihar Chief Minister said the “politics practiced by the Congress over the years in Maharashtra had given rise to such splinter parties as Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which were bent on dividing society on communal lines.”
Mr. Kumar similarly urged “other parties to be vigilant of the Congress in the upcoming polls in the region by warning that they [the Congress] would hope to take advantage of their disunity.”
Meanwhile, party sources said decision on the number of seats to be contested by the JD (U) in Jharkhand would be taken on November 1.
Party sources revealed that BJP president Rajnath Singh and JD (U) president and NDA convener Sharad Yadav would shortly be holding discussions to mull over the seat sharing arrangement between the two parties for the Jharkhand polls.
Condemns Naxal action
Mr. Kumar condemned the detention of the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express from Bhubaneswar by the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC) by terming the action “shameful and undemocratic.”
The Chief Minister said “there was no place for violence in a democracy and such incidents only caused grave inconvenience to local passengers.”
