Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday ruled out returning to the NDA, an alliance he parted with a year ago, to which the BJP retorted he would not be welcome even if he begged for another chance.
Kumar snapped at reporters asking him about speculations on the possibility of the JD(U)’s return to the NDA, saying, “Kya faltu baat karte hain (What rubbish are you talking).”
To this, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, Kumar’s former deputy, called the JD(U) supremo a “political liability who had lost his steam” and said “naak ragdenge to bhi nahin wapas lenge” (will not be re-inducted even if begs).
Ironically, Kumar was speaking out against the BJP at RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s birth anniversary. Upadhyaya was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the original party from which BJP was born and RSS is considered as the ideological progenitor of a number of organisations including the saffron party.
The drama unfolded at a park in the city’s Rajendra Nagar locality where Kumar came to take part in the function which his government had been holding since the time it shared power with the BJP.
Kumar was accompanied, among others, by his current deputy Tejashwi Yadav, whose party RJD takes pride in having remained uncompromising in its opposition to the BJP.
Yadav, who offered floral tributes before a statue of Upadhyay, one of the founding members of the BJP’s former avatar Bharatiya Jana Sangh, insisted that his ideological stance notwithstanding, he was not averse to such niceties.
When some journalists claimed he had once said in the assembly that he would discontinue functions held in memory of RSS leaders upon coming to power, Yadav shot back, “I have never said so.” Kumar has been attending functions to mark respect not only to Deen Dayal Upadhyay but also former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ex-NDA finance minister Arun Jaitley as he holds them in high esteem, even though he does not belong to the BJP.
Many political analysts believe that several opposition leaders and parties maintain links with the RSS despite taking on the BJP, as part of a calculated political stance.
When it was the turn of the chief minister to interact with journalists, he was asked, in a lighter vein, whether he was planning a return to the NDA.
Notably, a section of the media has been speculating that Kumar was unhappy with the opposition INDIA coalition not naming him as the convener and that his exchange of pleasantries with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent G20 event in New Delhi had more to it than what meets the eye.
However, the septuagenarian seemed displeased with the kite flying as he snapped, “Kya faltu baat karte hain (What rubbish are you talking)”, even as Yadav, who stood by his side, grinned at the exchange.
He also responded to queries on future activities of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and voiced disapproval of his party colleagues calling him a “prime minister material”.
Replying to a query, Kumar said he did not know why BJP leaders, who attended the function to mark the birth anniversary of the late Deen Dayal Upadhyay while in power, were not present this time.
However, BJP leaders did reach the spot shortly after the CM, his cabinet colleagues and other government officials had left and the party’s state unit chief Samrat Choudhary alleged that they “were not invited to the function”.
Modi, who was part of the BJP contingent, was asked about the possibility of return to NDA of Kumar, with whom his personal friendship was once the stuff of legend in Bihar’s political circles.
The BJP leader, who is now a Rajya Sabha member, asserted that the bridges have been burnt, saying, “Nitish Kumar has now become a liability. He is now incapable of getting a single vote transferred to alliance partners. Why would we then like to realign? All doors are closed for him. He is no more welcome even if he begs to do so by rubbing his nose on the ground.”
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