Bihar Opposition taunts Nitish Kumar on his continuing alliance with BJP

PATNA: The Bihar Opposition has begun taunting CM Nitish Kumar on his continuing alliance with BJP, after the saffron partner acknowledged that his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, will have a larger role in national politics.

“Nitish Kumar had said Narendra Modi would never be acceptable to him. When it is increasingly clear that Modi will be NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, why is Nitish Kumar maintaining a silence? Why is he not quitting the alliance? The truth is, Nitish Kumar is not in position to break off from the saffron party,” LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan has been repeating at public meetings during his Bihar Bachao Yatra.

After BJP president Rajnath Singh reinducted Modi into the party’s parliamentary board and accommodated his supporters too, Modi has certainly become the front-runner for being projected as the prime ministerial candidate, a development being highlighted by the Bihar Opposition to mount pressure on Nitish to seek an early separation from BJP.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad too came hard on Kumar: What is he is waiting for? It is very clear that Modi will be the candidate. But I know he will not walk out of the alliance.” Though it seems certain that Kumar will walk out of the alliance if BJP projects Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, he does not seem to be in a hurry to initiate a proactive response. But that has not stopped his rivals from attacking him. Even UPA constituent, NCP, went public with its ‘advice’ for Kumar that he should walk out of NDA.