Nitish Kumar's DNA "went wrong" after aligning with Lalu Prasad Yadav: Rajiv Pratap Rudy

PATNA: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's DNA barb on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy today raked up a similar controversy by alleging that Kumar's DNA has "gone wrong" after aligning with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

He also claimed that Kumar has "lost his good senses" after joining forces with the RJD supremo, who, he alleged, has "cast a spell" on the Bihar Chief Minister who is "speaking the same language against the BJP," as Prasad has been doing all these years.

"There was nothing wrong with your (Nitish Kumar) DNA so long as you were with us (BJP)....your DNA has gone wrong only after your formed an alliance with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad," Rudy, the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship told reporters here.

On the Chief Minister firing salvo at the Prime Minister for his DNA remarks by claiming that he hailed from a family of freedom fighters, the Union Minister said, it was not his family alone, but the entire 50 crore population of the country that had fought for the country's freedom.

"Kumar is perhaps not aware of the history and geography of the country," he said, taking a dig at Kumar.

In a hard-hitting attack on the senior JD(U) leader, Rudy, a senior BJP leader and MP from Chhapra, charged the former with being "garrulous" like his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal.

Nitish Kumar too has followed in Kejriwal's footsteps and adopted a similar "garrulous and confrontationist attitude" towards the Centre, but in his case, he was unlikely to get another term in power in Bihar, the Union Minister claimed.

Rudy also claimed that Kumar was in "some manner" involved in the boycott of the NITI Ayog meeting in Delhi by some Congress ministers recently due to his "confrontationist attitude towards the Centre" and described the development as "dangerous and a blow to the federal structure".

Slamming the Chief Minister for conducting himself in an "arrogant manner" by claiming himself to be sole repository of wisdom, the senior BJP leader said that Kumar was trying to project a pro-development image in public even as he was working on "caste arithmetic" to get another term in power.

"We are thankful to the Prime Minister for making development a central agenda during Bihar Assembly polls and compelling leaders like Nitish Kumar to seek mandate on the same issue," the Union minister said.

Rudy exuded confidence that the NDA will "sweep" the polls and thanked the senior JD(U) leader for making the victory of BJP-led alliance a "certainty" by joining hands with Lalu Prasad.

The Union minister also claimed that "incidents like riots and crime against public order" have witnessed an "alarming" increase, unlike other states.

There were "13,566 incidents of riots" in Bihar and "14,443 cases of crime" against public order last year, Rudy claimed.