Patna: Accusing JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar “of having no vision”, RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha has said his party supremo Lalu Yadav had decided to support the CM in 2022 after he told him that the BJP was out to “finish his party”.
Last weekend, Nitish dumped the JD(U)’s Mahagathbandhan alliance to join hands with the BJP. He took oath as Bihar CM for the ninth time Sunday.
In 2022, Nitish Kumar had broken ties with the BJP to join the Mahagathbandhan, which comprises the RJD, the Congress and Left parties. Prior to that, in 2013, he had snapped ties with the BJP, then tied up with Lalu in 2015 to take oath as Bihar CM for the fifth time. In 2017, he made another U-turn by rejoining the BJP.
Nitish’s long history of political U-turns has earned him the nickname “Paltu Ram” from friend-turned-rival Lalu.
“When Nitish came to them (RJD), he said the BJP was out to finish his party. One knows what a large-hearted person Laluji is. We thought we should protect him (Nitish) as he was part of the family,” Jha told ThePrint in an interaction Tuesday, adding that the Mahagathbandhan gave Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s son and former Bihar deputy CM, the opportunity to execute his ideas.
In the 2020 Bihar election, the JD(U) was reduced to 43 seats in the 243-member assembly while the BJP got 74. MP and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan, who called himself “PM Narendra Modi’s Hanuman”, was then alleged to have fielded candidates against the JD(U)’s, and hurt the latter’s prospects in at least 25 seats.
Speaking about the Mahagathbandhan, Jha said: “Joining hands with Nitish Kumar was not a mistake. There are things you commit yourself to in the larger interest of people. Tejashwiji had committed to provide jobs to people. In a short period of 17 months, more than 4 lakh jobs were distributed. Mr Kumar was CM for 17 long years. Did it happen before? No. Because Mr Kumar did not have the vision.”
He added that “it was to the credit of Tejashwi that Bihar became known for social justice, inclusive justice, creation of jobs, building of infrastructure and better hospitals”.
“I think this credit is being given to Tejashwi by everyone in Bihar and that probably rattled the BJP. Although I still believe that this decision (to quit the alliance) was not taken by Mr Kumar on his own,” Jha said, claiming that he was told that “Bihar government officials were under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and were used as a tool to make Nitish join the NDA”.
RJD leader and former education minister Chandrashekhar has made similar claims — that Nitish had come to Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi to say that “the BJP was out to finish him”.
“The real reason (behind Kumar joining hands with the BJP Sunday) is that the ED was interrogating several persons close to JD(U) leaders. The break-up (of the alliance) happened to cover scams and not because of us,” he told ThePrint.
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‘Tejashwi gave life to Bihar education department’
After Nitish rejoined the NDA Sunday, the JD(U) issued a statement blaming three RJD leaders for the uneasy relationship between the two parties — Sudhakar Singh, who had taken potshots at Kumar publicly and resigned as state agriculture minister in October 2022, MLC Sunil Singh, who had made comments against Nitish on social media, and Chandrashekhar, for his comments last year against the Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas, saying it “spread hatred in society”.
Chandrashekhar told ThePrint that he had done nothing wrong. “It (his clarification on the subject) is in the proceedings of the assembly. I had given my statement on the Ramcharitmanas with (supporting) documents. I had not said a word of my own. If anyone disagrees, they should challenge my statement inside the assembly. The late Ram Manohar Lohia was more educated than me. He also said the same thing.”
According to Chandrashekhar, those who were criticising him for his comments were finding excuses for making an exit from the alliance.
“I was never asked by my leader not to say these things. The truth is that our leader Tejashwi Yadav was able to fulfil many promises, including giving government jobs and taking education standards in Bihar to a new level. In the last 17 years, education has hit rock bottom in the state. Life was given to the education department under Tejashwi,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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