Arrah, Oct 25 (PTI) The BJP wants to “sideline” Nitish Kumar after the assembly polls just as it did with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra, the CPI(ML) Liberation MP from Arrah, Sudama Prasad, said as he questioned the intention behind not announcing the NDA’s chief ministerial face in Bihar.
In an interview with PTI, Prasad stressed that unemployment remains the biggest issue in Bihar, and accused the ruling NDA of raising the bogey of ‘jungle raj’ to distract attention from the issue. He expressed confidence that the opposition Mahagatbandhan will win this time.
“We will win more than 200 seats this time… They were asking, ‘who is your CM face’. Everyone knows Tejashwi Prasad (Yadav) is the CM face… Now NDA should tell who is their CM face. Is Nitish ji going to be the CM face again?” Prasad said.
At a joint press conference in Patna, the Mahagathbandhan on Thursday declared RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav its chief ministerial candidate for the elections. The announcement came after the NDA projected the rival alliance as a divided house.
“In 2020, when the Home Minister (Amit Shah) had come here (Bihar), journalists asked him if Nitish ji would be the CM, and he had replied that he would be the CM, even if the JD(U) gets a lesser number of seats. This time, when he was asked about it, he said the MLAs will decide. He does not have good intentions it seems,” the Arrah MP said.
“What they did with Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra, they broke the Shiv Sena, and after elections, Shinde was sidelined… Or what they did with Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, the same may happen with Nitish Kumar. They crush whoever they embrace,” the MP alleged, targeting the BJP.
“Definitely after the elections, they want to do the same with Nitish Kumar ji, that is why they are not announcing any name,” he alleged.
Prasad challenged the NDA to announce its CM face.
“They should tell who their CM face is or how many deputy CMs would be there, two, three or five…They should have made the announcement today”.
Asked about ‘friendly fight’ among constituents of Mahagatbandhan in certain seats, he said efforts are being made to ensure that there is only one candidate of the alliance in every seat.
“All is well in Mahagatbandhan. The BJP works on many fronts to weaken the opposition. If there is doubling on some seats, that will also be sorted out,” he said. “We are trying to ensure there is only one candidate in every seat”.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘jungle raj’ jibe at the RJD, Prasad alleged that it was aimed at deflecting attention from the issue of unemployment.
“The narrative of ‘jungle raj’ would not work. The youth of Bihar want jobs. The INDIA bloc had shown in 17 months, we had given 5 lakh jobs,” he claimed.
“They are out of issues, even the Hindu-Muslim agenda is not working, so they are talking about ‘jungle raj’. They should talk about jobs. Modi ji should tell how many jobs he gave,” he said.
“Is it Mangal Raj at present? Gopal Khemka was murdered in broad daylight, a street vendor was murdered in Begusarai; in Chhapra, the owner of a showroom and his brother were murdered… What is this? An 11-year-old girl was raped and could not get treatment in PMCH and died…” he said.
Prasad expressed confidence that the Mahagatbandhan will come to power in the state and win all seats in the Bhojpur district.
“Mahagatbandhan will form the government, and we will win all seven seats in Bhojpur district. The last time we won five. Not just Shahabad, we will do well on all seats of central Bihar because people here depend on agriculture,” he said.
He said that the impact of the Special Intensive Revision and the deletion of the names of voters is also there. “The NDA would be badly defeated,” he asserted. PTI AO RT RT RT
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