PATNA: A day after secular alliance firmed up seat sharing arrangements for Bihar Assembly polls, BJP today charged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with surrendering before RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and Congress by agreeing to contest only 100 seats despite having 118 legislators in the outgoing legislative assembly.
"Kumar has conceded defeat to the RJD supremo and Congress by agreeing to contest on 100 seats against 118 that his party - JD(U) - held in the outgoing 15th legislative assembly,"senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement.
The seat sharing arrangement, among the secular alliance under which the JD(U) and RJD will contest 100 seats each and 40 seats going to Congress, also pointed to admission by the Chief Minister that he has lost political ground in Bihar and desperately required the support of RJD supremo to return to power at the hustings, Modi said.
Describing the seat sharing formula as a win-win situation for the RJD and Congress, the BJP leader said the two parties have appeared to have extracted huge cost for lending outside support to the JD(U) government with the RJD getting over three-times more seats than it held in the outgoing assembly at 24, while for Congress it must be a mind boggling deal as it has walked away with 40 seats against four it held in the outgoing legislative assembly.
Modi claimed that the Chief Minister, known for anti-Congress political background, has ditched the socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia to return favour to Congress President Sonia Gandhi by giving ten times more seats to her party than it held in the outgoing legislative assembly for her sustained pressure on the RJD supremo to accept the senior JD(U) leader as the secular alliance's chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
Further dissecting the seat sharing arrangements among secular alliance constituents, Modi sought to warn the people against electing a coalition in which the RJD supremo will be the real power centre.
"Bihar is already witnessing jungle raj - II' and the violence unleashed by the RJD workers during 'Bihar Bandh' last month in the state capital and elsewhere is a precursor to what may come if the secular alliance comes to power again," the former deputy chief minister said. The rampaging RJD workers even prevented the Patna High Court judges from reaching court for work by stopping their vehicles on roads, he said.
The BJP leader said his party has thrown all its resources in campaigning for Assembly polls with a singular mission to prevent return of 'jungle raj - II' in Bihar with the blessings of the people.