Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will bow before Opposition chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav, if necessary after the declaration of Assembly election results on November 10, ANI reported. Paswan has been relentlessly criticising Kumar during the campaign for the Assembly elections and the latest attack came ahead of the final phase of polling.
Paswan told reporters in Patna that Kumar is “greedy for power” as the Janata Dal (United) fights for a fourth straight term in Bihar. “Now you [Nitish Kumar] are bowing before the same prime minister whom you used to unabashedly criticise,” he added. “Post November 10, if needed he may be seen bowing before Tejashwi Yadav.”
Kumar, an ally of the BJP since the early 2000s, parted ways with it in 2014 after Narendra Modi took over its leadership. In 2015, Kumar joined hands with RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav to jointly contest and win elections against the BJP. But their coalition government fell apart in a year and half. Kumar then returned to the National Democratic Alliance. Two years later, the NDA won 39 of the 40 seats in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In October, the Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party broke away from the JD(U)-BJP alliance, citing “ideological differences”. Swearing allegiance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Paswan had announced that his party would field candidates against the JD(U), but not against the BJP.
Since then Paswan has been targeting Kumar on a range of matters. On Thursday, the LJP chief said Kumar could not develop Bihar despite being in power for 15 years and failed to fulfill the promises made to people of the state. “You are the weakest chief minister,” he added. “You can’t any work done on your own...cannot ensure development in the state. Only have excuses that this the Centre will see or this someone else will see... if everyone else will do the work then what are you in that chair for?”
Paswan urged people not to support the Bihar chief minister in the elections. “Your one vote to JD(U) will push Bihar into destruction,” he said.
He also added that he has no problem with BJP leaders, adding that people of the state will see who the “real Hanuman” is after November 10. “At last this Hanuman will make the BJP government in Bihar after November 10,” he continued.
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