Like Lalu Prasad, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar too will skip Rahul Gandhi's rally today

PATNA: JD (U) on Friday tried to play down chief minister Nitish Kumar's decision to skip Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's rally in Bihar's West Champaran district on Saturday, saying it was due to his preoccupation in Patna. RJD chief Lalu Prasad, too, will be absent from the rally.

"The CM is occupied with seat allotment and selection of candidates. Therefore, he cannot leave Patna on Saturday when the party announces its list of candidates. No one should attach any political meaning to it," JD(U) state president Bashishtha Narain Singh said.

Party general secretary KC Tyagi would attend the rally. Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Choudhary said he had received a communication that the CM was preoccupied. Lalu has already announced he will send younger son Tejaswi Yadav to represent RJD at the Ramnagar rally.

Using the opportunity, NDA said the absence of the two leaders is 'intriguing and unconvincing'. BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, "Congress, on the insistence of Rahul, contested 243 seats in 2010 assembly polls. But won only four seats. Lalu and Nitish know the grand alliance will sink if they share dais with Rahul. They think it will prove a bad omen."

Shivraj Singh, secretary general of RLSP, another NDA ally, recalled that Lalu emerged as the tallest politician at their Swabhiman rally in Patna on August 30. Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political stature was reduced to that of Sharad and Nitish as she was made to address the rally before them, said Singh, adding, "JD(U) and RJD expect a befitting reply from Rahul at the rally and, therefore, have chosen to give it a miss."