By IANS,
Chandigarh/Patna : Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Monday slammed rival and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for sharing a dais with a “murderer” like Narendra Modi. He also predicted that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) would form the next government, his love-hate relationship with the Congress notwithstanding.
A day after the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) show of strength at an election rally in Ludhiana, where Janata Dal-United’s (JD-U) Nitish Kumar and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi held hands in a sign of camaraderie, Lalu Prasad hit out at his Bihar rival while talking to reporters at Patna airport.
“If you remember, Nitish had said earlier that he will not share a dais with these people,” Lalu Prasad told a private television channel. “Nitish sacrificed his secular image by joining a murderer like Modi.”
“Nitish Kumar’s secular fa�ade was exposed after he shared the stage with Modi, responsible for the Gujarat riots in 2002 in which Muslims were butchered,” the railway minister said.
“Now that voting in Bihar has ended, he has gone back to his original position. (Congress general secretary) Rahul Gandhi, who had given him the secular certificate, and others who favourably spoke of him will realise how secular he is,” Lalu Prasad said.
“Nitish enjoys friendship with Modi, (BJP president) L.K. Advani and the BJP… it has come true again,” he added.
A short while later, the railway minister was in Chandigarh to address an election rally.
“The UPA will form the next government in the centre. We are solidly with the UPA,” he said.
Relations between the Congress and the RJD have come under enormous strain over the issue of seat sharing in Bihar.
Lalu Prasad also indicated that the door for negotiations with the Left parties for the formation of the next government was still open and added that things would be clearer after the May 16 results of the 2009 general elections.
At the rally in Chandigarh, he said the BJP had neither allowed the (Babri) Masjid to remain nor got the (Ram) temple constructed.
“All that they did was to get the parliament attacked,” he said.
Responding to his comments on Modi and Nitish Kumar, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said Lalu Prasad had betrayed his “desperation”.
“It is a sign of desperation. Nitish Kumar has been part of the NDA right from day one. Modi is a duly-elected twice chief minister of Gujarat who is doing good work. Lalu Prasad is getting a washout, hence this desperation,” he said.
He added that the railway minister found himself in the mess for the first time in 20 years.
RJD’s alliance partner, the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan, also slammed Nitish Kumar for sharing a stage with Modi.
“Soon after elections came to an end in Bihar, Nitish Kumar has exposed his real face,” LJP leader Abdul Khaliq said in a statement.
Anil Kumar Sharma, president of the Bihar Congress unit added: “During the elections in Bihar, Nitish Kumar did not allow Modi to campaign in the state. But now (since) the elections are over, he is sharing a dais with Modi. Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP to become chief minister (and) now he is eyeing a bigger role by shaking hands with Modi.”