Nitish, Lalu keeping Bihar away from development: Shah

The BJP chief also asked why the Bihar CM and Rahul Gandhi are "silent" on RJD chief chief Lalu Prasad’s views on beef.

BJP president Amit Shah: " Even today people of Bihar are forced to go out of the state for education, livelihood and health". File photo: Ranjeet Kumar

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Wednesday asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi why they are “silent” on Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s views on beef and asked them to come out openly whether they endorse it or not.

“Why are Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi silent on Lalu Prasad’s comment that there is no difference between beef and goat meat ... Silence will not do. They have to make public whether they agree with Prasad’s view or not,” Mr. Shah said addressing an election meeting backing BJP candidate Prem Ranjan Patel at Suryagraha in Lakhisarai district, about 125 km from Patna.

The BJP chief came down heavily on Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, accusing them of keeping Bihar away from development in the last 25 years. Mr. Prasad had also courted controversy with his remarks that some Hindus too eat beef.

He blasted Mr. Kumar and Mr. Prasad for spreading “delusion” on the reservation issue in the wake of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment on the need to review reservation.

“As a BJP President who will know RSS better — me or Lalu Prasad or Nitish Kumar ? ... I have stated clearly that BJP does not belief in any kind of change in reservation in jobs,” Mr. Shah said.

The BJP president who addressed four rallies at Samastipur, Munger, Lakhisarai and Sheikhopura during the day blamed the Mr. Prasad and Mr. Kumar’s 25-year-long rule for poor condition of Bihar.

“Even today people of Bihar are forced to go out of the state for education, livelihood and health,” he said.

Making a scathing attack against Nitish Kumar, the BJP President accused him of “stabbing at the back of the 2010 mandate given to JD (U)-BJP coalition.”

He alleged that Mr. Kumar did it on the eve of 2014 Lok Sabha elections because of his ambition to become prime minister.

Taking a swipe at Mr. Kumar for dreaming to become PM, Shah asked whether his party JD(U) has any presence in states outside Bihar like Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha or West Bengal to take a shot at PM post.

He alleged that Mr. Kumar, the CM candidate of the secular alliance, is merely a “mask” behind which is “jungle raj of the RJD chief.”