Bihar’s main Opposition leaders Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan of the LJP on Monday slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar over his visit to Mumbai and for his “humiliating surrender of Bihar’s honour” there. Both the parties announced plans for agitations against the Kumar’s NDA government.
Drilling holes in Mr Kumar’s subtle efforts to build a Bihari sub-nationalism above the limits of caste, his arch rival and RJD chief Yadav said: “In Maharashtra they (MNS) force people to first say ‘Jai Maharashtra’ and then get to live here. Nitish Kumar first said ‘Jai Maharashtra’. He also left Bihar only after saying this. He has thus delivered a hard blow to Bihar’s honour and his government has demoralised the Biharis.”
“Reports about the disagreements (between Mr Kumar and MNS chief Raj Thackeray) were baseless. This was only their family talk. Is there any difference between Nitish Kumar, RSS, BJP and Shiv Sena? This quarrel was like one between a husband and a wife, which always ends in compromises,” Mr Yadav, a former Bihar chief minister, told journalists.
Accusing Mr Kumar of celebrating Bihar Divas ignoring the rising poverty and decline in law and order in the state, He said: “Bihar has turned 100 years old, but was it during these people’s reign only?” He said the RJD is chalking out elaborate plans for statewide agitations against the government.
LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan said his party would begin a statewide signature collection campaign against the “rampant corruption” by Kumar’s JD(U)-BJP government and present at least one crore signatures of Biharis to the President of India.