Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that he will not realign with his former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as long as he is alive, reported PTI. The CM also accused the BJP of using central investigation agencies to target political opponents, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Recalling the era of political leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi, Kumar said that they were “so different” and those “currently at the helm of affairs listen to nobody”. Kumar made the comments while addressing a gathering at Bihar’s Samastipur district on Friday.
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“They had lodged a case against Lalu, which caused me to sever my ties with him. Nothing came of it. And now when we are together again, they are lodging fresh cases. You can figure out the style of functioning of these people,” Kumar told the gathering, without mentioning BJP, reported PTI.
Lalu was named in an IRCTC land for a hotel scam, in which his son and current Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav are also named as accused, a few years ago. On October 8, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge-sheet against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, and 14 others in connection with a land-for-job scam during Lalu’s tenure as railway minister in the UPA-1 government.
“So different were the leaders of the same party of the past like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in whose cabinet I had the privilege to work, and LK Advani who was then the Deputy PM. I have fond memories of Murli Manohar Joshi too who honored my request to upgrade my alma mater, the Bihar Engineering College, as a National Institute of Technology,” said Kumar, as quoted by PTI.
“In contrast, those currently at the helm of affairs listen to nobody and have scant respect for any person and his or her concerns. I want to assert that I will not go back to them as long as I am alive,” Kumar added.