A month after expressing his respect for Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has suddenly become his strident critic.
In light of Mr. Paswan’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janta Party, Mr. Kumar said the LJP leader was devoid of any ideology.
“By doing a complete U-turn, he [Mr. Paswan] has shown that he never had any principles. He will do whatever is convenient to him. There is nothing called ideology in politics anymore. This alliance has nothing to do with principles. This is strange but true,” Mr.Kumar said on Friday.
Mr. Kumar described Mr. Paswan’s move as unprecedented.
Earlier, he had said only Mr. Paswan would be able to explain his “strange” actions.
At a press conference last month, while responding to a question on a likely LJP-JD (U) alliance, Mr. Kumar said he respected Mr. Paswan.
The BJP hit out at Mr. Kumar questioning his ideological position in turn.
“He was with us for 12 years, after the 2002 riots. Did he not think of ideology then? What about the riots in Bhagalpur and Assam during Congress governments? There were several riots in the SP’s regime [in Uttar Pradesh],” BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said.
Mr. Paswan quit the BJP-led coalition government in 2002 after the Gujarat riots.
