A day after the Income Tax Department conducted raids at several premises of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Ahmad Ashfaque Karim in Katihar and Patna, election strategist Prashant Kishor on Thursday dared Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to say that RJD is not involved in corruption.
The convenor of Jan Suraaj, Mr. Kishor said that Mr. Kumar did not have the courage to come out and say that Lalu Prasad, and his family members are not involved in corruption.
“There is not a single statement from Nitish Kumar that the action taken against Lalu Prasad and his family is wrong nor that they are not involved in corruption. Nitish Kumar should clearly say that he is our ally and all the allegations of corruption against him are baseless. If he is not saying so then the public should understand what kind of politics he is involved in,” Mr. Kishor said in Sitamarhi while interacting with the media.
He added that since RJD workers are publicly declaring that Mr. Prasad, or his kinfolk, were not involved in corruption, as Mr. Prasad’s ally Mr. Kumar should also say the same.
“This shows Nitish Kumar’s double standards. He is in the Grand Alliance purely for two reasons. Firstly because he knew that if BJP comes to power in 2024, they will first dethrone him and make their own Chief Minister. Therefore, before the BJP gets involved, he formed a Grand Alliance so that he remains the Chief Minister till November 2025. The second reason is that post-2025, he wants a government that is worse off than his own. This is so that the people in the State praise him once he is out of power,“ Mr. Kishor said.
He also pointed out that Mr. Karim is the main trustee and the founder chancellor of Katihar-based Al Karim University in Bihar. Sharing the past incident, he said that it may be recalled that the investigative agency had earlier conducted a raid on Mr. Karim’s house in connection to the alleged land for job-scam case involving Mr. Yadav and his family members.
Sharing his views, Mr. Kishor said that he is neither with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, nor with National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He said that he is with the people of Bihar.
“The people of Bihar have seen the governance of INDIA in the form of the United Progressive Alliance government and also the NDA in the form of BJP. Today, even after their governance of 30-40 years, the basic issues of Bihar like unemployment and migration have not been tackled yet. In 1990, Bihar was one of the most backward states in the country in terms of economy, starvation, and unemployment and now in 2023, the situation prevails the same, “ Mr. Kishor added.
He opined that the people of Bihar will have to stand up to improve their own condition, to bring themselves out of the situation for their betterment. Mr. Kishor said that this is the reason he is not working for any party this time, instead he is going to meet the public to hold their hands and make them aware about their rights. He asserted that is there to awaken the people that the state in which they are living right now will only improve when they get awakened, and improve the pattern of their voting, and not by any alliances like INDIA or the NDA.
