By IANS,
Patna : Terming reports of the growing rift between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) “nautanki (drama)”, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Sunday dared the BJP to snap ties and contest the coming Bihar polls on its own.
“Both of them are playing a drama. They will go together,” Lalu Prasad said at a press conference here, claiming that the BJP-JD(U) alliance was an outcome of their “Laluphobia” over a decade ago.
“The BJP should snap ties with JD-U and withdraw support from Nitish Kumar government to prove that it has self-respect,” he said.
He also said it was time Nitish Kumar should sever ties with BJP. “No more drama over advertisements featuring him and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi… he realised the danger of Modi and BJP after running the government for four and half years with the BJP,” Lalu Prasad said.
Referring to Nitish Kumar’s decision to return the Rs.5 crore aid given by the Gujarat government during Kosi floods in 2008, Lalu Prasad said that it was wrong. “The assistance provided by Gujarat government during floods in 2008 was not the personal money of Narendra Modi but that of people of Gujarat,” he said.
The RJD chief also said he wanted to know from the Bihar government about the huge amount of relief materials sent by Gujarat government.
“Two trains full of relief materials were sent by Gujarat government. Were they distributed among flood victims or not?” he asked, demanding Nitish Kumar make public all details of relief assistance provided by various state governments, public agencies and others.
The rift between JD-U and the BJP widened Sunday, with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi boycotting a joint march in rural Patna and the chief minister quickly hitting back by cancelling a similar event here later in the day.
The Sushil Modi-Nitish Kumar face-off came even as top leaders of the two parties flexed their muscles over differences that seem to threaten their alliance ahead of assembly elections in October this year.
Sushil Modi stayed away from the Sunday morning ‘Vishwas Yatra’ (Confidence March) at Paliganj in rural Patna, a day after the chief minister returned the Rs.5 crore aid money given by the Gujarat government during the Bihar floods in 2008.
Nitish Kumar has justified his decision, saying the Gujarat government and Narendra Modi erred by talking about their aid to Bihar. “What they did was against the principles of our culture,” he said.