Nitish refutes PM’s criticism of alliance with Lalu – News18

Refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of his alliance with the RJD, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has underlined his old friendship with the party’s founding president Lalu Prasad.

Kumar was asked by reporters on Wednesday about Modi’s comments at the NDA meeting on July 18, when the prime minister met in Bengaluru to announce a new alliance, criticizing the anti-BJP parties “JD(U) and RJD”. had spoken of “exchange of abuses”. With the abbreviation “India”.

“Doesn’t he remember what happened in 2015?” JDU’s supreme leader Kumar quipped.

He was referring to the Bihar assembly polls, which his party fought in alliance with the RJD and the Congress and handed out a crushing defeat to the BJP-led alliance despite the PM’s intense campaigning.

Kumar also blamed the BJP, which rules at the Centre, for parting ways with Prasad in 2017 when cases were filed against him, all of which were overturned and he was warmly prodded by the saffron party to return to the NDA. ,

The Chief Minister pointed out that his association with Prasad goes back a long way, saying, “I was an engineering student and an activist whose support was instrumental in his becoming the president of the Patna University Students’ Union.”

He also recalled that during his student days, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who was the deputy CM of Bihar for a long time, was the general secretary, “in the same way I supported him, though he speaks a lot against me these days”.

“I have supported many people in my life but only to get cheated by them. I installed one of them as Chief Minister in my place. The other was an IAS officer whom I helped reach great heights. And look where they are today,” Kumar said, referring to Hindustani Awam Morcha founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has joined the NDA, and former JDU president RCP Singh, who is now in the BJP.

Notably, Kumar had taken along Prasad and his son and current Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav during his visit to Bengaluru for the opposition meeting.

The three had left together on Monday afternoon and returned on Tuesday. Kumar also met Prasad on Wednesday evening, who lives with his wife Rabri Devi in ​​the government bungalow allotted to him as the former CM.

A source close to the RJD supremo said it was a courtesy call and the Chief Minister wanted to inquire about the health of Prasad, who is suffering from multiple ailments, had undergone a kidney transplant last year and was not keeping well during his visit to Bengaluru. Was. ,

Tejashwi Yadav, who lives in a bungalow on the adjacent road, also came running after learning that his boss had come to meet his parents.

The friendship assumes significance in the wake of recent speculation that after the fresh CBI chargesheet against Yadav, Kumar may again put a halt to the alliance with the RJD.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI,