PATNA: A day after BJP in-charge of Bihar Vinod Tawde said the party’s doors were permanently closed for Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) leader hit back asserting he would prefer to die rather than join the saffron party.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function organised on Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, Nitish said: “When I was with the grand alliance, BJP had implicated RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in false cases. Now, when Tejashwi is back with me, BJP is again trying to implicate him in false cases.”
The CM said the present BJP was unlike its older version as the present generation party leaders had created a new party. Even old BJP leaders also held the same view, he added. Lashing out at the present dispensation at the Centre for ‘prachar-prashar (propaganda) renaming places and doing away with long-held practices such as a separate budget for the railways.
“We were in favour of the leadership provided by Atal-Advani. Now, these (Modi-Shah) people have come. They are changing everything, names too.” The JD(U) supremo claimed that the saffron party would feel the heat of grand alliance in Lok Sabha elections in 2024. “They will get to know the reality when elections are held. I hope all parties opposed to BJP across the country will come together to defeat them. In Bihar, they are bound to be bite the dust at the hustings,” he added.
After paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Ghat on the bank of Ganga river, Nitish said, “Bapu was safeguarding the interests of all and was also moving ahead by taking along all people. It was the reason he was assassinated. None of us should forget it, how much they (BJP) try to drive a wedge between sections of the society.”
Continuing the attack on the CM, leader of Opposition in Bihar legislative council and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary said: “You should also not forget that BJP made you chief minister by lifting you up to its shoulders like a father.”