No regrets over debacle in general elections, says Nitish Kumar

SUPAUL: Asserting that he had given primacy to principle over coalition government while severing alliance with the BJP last year, former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today said that he has no regrets over debacle in the general elections.

"Chunav mein harne ka koi gam nahin hai (I have no regrets over debacle in general elections," he told JD(U) workers at a public meeting in Bihar's Supaul district.

Kumar said that he cared two hoots about consequence for breaking alliance with the BJP as for him principles mattered more than running a coalition government with the saffron party in Bihar.

The senior JD(U) leader, undertaking Sampark Yatra since November 13 to rejuvenate party workers ahead of the Assembly polls due next year, gave a back-handed compliment to the BJP-led NDA for storming to power at the Centre and said that the saffron party succeeded in its mission to rule the country by luring the people to vote for it on promises that have not been translated into action till now.

"The BJP has succeeded in attaining power at the Centre by making tall claims and promises that it has not fulfilled so far," Kumar, who quit the Chief Minister's post owning moral responsibility for the JD(U)'s debacle in the general elections, said.

"BJP ne thug kar ke vote liya (BJP fooled the people into voting for it)," he said.

Apparently wary of the BJP launching similar campaign to woo the people of Bihar to vote it to power in the Assembly polls next year, Kumar told his party workers to remain vigilant about the saffron party's whisper campaign through its vast network of propaganda machinery that it will let loose in the state ahead of the polls.

"The BJP leaders and workers will reach out to the people to woo them on false hope and promises... you (JD-U workers) should visit all those places and try to de-indoctrinate the masses and remind them about what all the JD(U) government has done for development of the state," he said.