Why Nitish Kumar did not resign in 2002? Asks BJP's Giriraj Singh

PATNA: As fissures within the NDA widened today, the BJP slammed JD(U) leader and Bihar chief minister as "opportunistic" and accused Nitish Kumar of using his "pseudo secular" image as a virtue to split the NDA.


State BJP minister Giriraj Singh asked, "Why did not Kumar resign (as the Railway minister) from the NDA government in 2002 (after Gujarat riots) if he was so concerned about his secular credentials?"

Reminding Kumar that the mandate given by the Bihar electorate in 2010 assembly polls to the NDA government was not to the Chief Minister or the JD(U) alone, Singh asked Kumar to seek fresh election if he had any morality left in him in the event of a split.

Observing that Kumar used his 'pseudo secular' image as virtue to split from the NDA sensing that he had the numbers to run the government in Bihar, the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister lambasted Kumar for using the BJP as "a tool to become chief minister and enjoy fruits of power all these years."

"The Gujarat incidents and (Narendra) Modi never pricked the Chief Minister's sensibility for over a decade, but all of a sudden the latter has discovered his secular virtues and developed anathema towards his Gujarat counterpart to justify his party's move to virtually part ways with the NDA," Singh said.

Describing the JD(Ú) leader's decision as 'opportunistic', Singh said there was no need of this political development when the state government was functioning smoothly and living up to the mandate of nearly eleven crore people of Bihar.

The people had voted for the NDA comprising the BJP and the JD() and they must be given an opportunity to elect a government of their choice in the wake of likely split in the NDA, the minister said.

Asked whether the BJP was weighing its option to withdraw its ministers from the NDA government to pre-empt the Chief Minister from dropping them in the event of parting of ways, Singh said that such a possibility was ruled out totally as the BJP does not want to be blamed for fissure in the NDA.

"Let the Chief Minister and the JD(U) leadership decide their course of action, the rest of development will take care of itself," the BJP minister said.