NEW DELHI/PATNA: BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday claimed Nitish Kumar is serving his last term as Bihar chief minister and will never get the chair again and dubbed him as a "snake" while referring to Lalu Prasad Yadav's five-year-old remarks.
Singh further said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will wield real power in Bihar as Kumar has joined hands with it for furthering his prime ministerial ambitions.
He, however, made light of Kumar's prospects saying anyone could nurse such an ambition.
JD(U) leader Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time on Wednesday, a day after snapping ties with the BJP-led NDA and joining hands with the RJD to form a 'Mahagathbandhan' government.
Referring to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's old remarks in which he had described Kumar as a "snake", Singh said that now the same snake has entered Yadav's house for furthering his prime ministerial ambitions.
When Kumar snapped ties with the RJD in 2017 and allied with the BJP again, Yadav in a tweet described him as a snake that sheds its skin every two years.
Sharing Yadav's tweet, Singh, who has often been critical of Kumar, on Wednesday said, "The snake has entered your home."
Underlining that Kumar can never become chief minister on his own, Singh said, "Nitish Kumar is serving his last term as chief minister, he will never get this chair again."
He said that Kumar considers himself prime minister material and his ambition leads him to ditch the people's mandate and jump to the other side to form the government.
"RJD will wield real power in Bihar, Nitish joined hands with it for furthering his prime ministerial ambitions," Singh told PTI.
He further said one who cannot become chief minister on his own, dreams about becoming the prime minister.
He also dared Kumar to seek a fresh mandate from the people of Bihar.
Even when the BJP was in alliance with JD(U), Singh had many times expressed his reservations about various decisions of Kumar and his stance on various ideological and Hindutva-related issues.
A dharna was held in front of the BJP office at Birchand Patel Marg in Patna that was attended by all party MPs and MLAs from Bihar who vowed to "expose" the 71-year-old JD(U) leader through agitations at district and block levels later this week.
"There is no other reason for the turnaround except his prime ministerial ambitions which make him envious of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He should first try to win a state election on his own, without using an alliance as a crutch," said Union minister Singh.
Saffron party leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday claimed that the new government will fall before completing its term in 2025.
Modi, who has known Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad for five decades, also said that the JD(U) supremo insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of Bihar who had voted for the NDA.
Addressing a press conference, the former deputy chief minister alleged that Kumar will "ditch the RJD and try to split it, taking advantage of RJD boss Lalu Prasad's illness".
He refuted the JD(U)'s claims of a "conspiracy" hatched through RCP Singh, claiming that the former Union minister had been inducted into the cabinet after consent was obtained from Nitish Kumar by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
"We will like to see how the new Bihar government functions with (RJD leader) Tejashwi as de facto CM; it will fall before next polls," the BJP leader added.