PATNA: The opposition Grand Alliance boycotted the oath-taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar on Monday, with RJD state president Jagdanand Singh going to the extent of accusing the JD-U president of retaining power through “betrayal” of the people’s mandate.
Singh claimed that the BJP had “looted” the endorsement that the voters had given to the opposition parties. “There is no question that we’ll attend the ceremony. We don’t believe in this government. This is an illegal government. This is not a chosen government by the people. Earlier he (Nitish) used to become the CM by betrayal, this time he cannot even be called a CM,” he said.
The entire country knows how the mandate of Grand Alliance was looted by a margin of 12,270 votes on 15 seats, Singh added. The RJD has been quoting the EC data to show that the NDA was ahead only by 12,270 votes. The Grand Alliance gave a tough fight to the NDA finishing at 110, barely 15 seats less than the ruling coalition.
Earlier in the day, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav took a jibe at Nitish calling him as a ‘nominated’ chief minister.
“Greetings to respected Nitish Kumar ji for being the ‘nominated’ chief Minister,” Tejashwi tweeted.” I hope he makes his priority positive issues such as aspirations of the people of Bihar, the NDA’s promise of 19 lakh jobs — employment, education, health, livelihood, irrigation and justice, rather than his ambition for the chair.”
Reacting to the RJD’s statement, newly elected MLC of JD-U Neeraj Kumar said that Tejashwi Yadav was the leader of a party that always promoted anarchy and crimes during its rule. He has no moral right to speak against Nitish who has set an example of good governance, Kumar added. But it was not just a sulking opposition which threw barbs at Nitish.
LJP chief Chirag Paswan in a tongue-in-cheek comment said that he hoped that Nitish would “continue to be NDA’s chief minister.” “There are some people who have been in power for 15 years but still have to take help of three friends (allies),” commented Chirag.
Prashant KISHOR TAKES SWIPE Too
Even poll strategist Prashant Kishor, a one-time favourite of Nitish, broke his Twitter exile of nearly four months to take swipe at his former boss. “Congratulations to Nitish Kumar for taking oath as BJP-nominated chief minister. With a tired and politically belittled leader as CM, #Bihar should brace for few more years of lacklustre governance,” he tweeted. Though Kishor had worked with Nitish in 2015, he exited the JD-U after differences with the Bihar chief minister.