Nitish faking tussle with BJP to hoodwink Muslims: Cong

NEW DELHI: Congress has charged Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar of trying to hoodwink Muslims by “faking’’ a quarrel with BJP.

The JD(U) leader’s decision to make a public display of his anger over the appearance of advertisements showing shaking hands with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and to return the flood relief money was meant, Congress feels, to send a strong message to the Muslim community that he was a strong votary of their cause.

Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik, who was recently appointed as in-charge of the state, claimed that the Bihar chief minister’s efforts to woo the minority voter would come a cropper as voters were wise to his game.

In its own effort to woo the Muslim voter, Congress has appointed a three-term MLA Mehboob Ali Kaiser as the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief. Muslims comprise around 14 % of the state’s electorate, and Congress feels that it has done enough to endear itself to the community once again after a long gap.

The Bihar chief minister has been working assiduously at reaching out to the minority community. From fencing of grave yards to granting life long pension scheme for the parents of those who were killed in the 1989 Bhgalpur communal riots , the Nitish Kumar administration has put in place several pro-minority welfare schemes, even at the risk of angering his party’s alliance partner.

Mr Wasnik, who is touring the state in an effort to mobilise party workers, said that the Bihar chief minister’s attempt to put a distance between himself and BJP leader Narendra Modi was a “meaningless gesture” as the two parties were in an alliance.

Buttressing the efforts to regain party’s footing in the state, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked party workers to concentrate on reaching out to people in the rural and remote areas so that the “Congress party’s focus on the common man genuinely addresses their needs.”

In her letter to Congress persons in the latest issue of the party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, Ms Gandhi wrote, “the Congress party has launched a mass contact programme in the country, with special attention being paid to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.” She has asked party workers to ensure that all schemes “promulgated by the UPA government at the Centre are fully implemented at the grassroots.”