PATNE: MLA Anant Singh on Saturday retracted his remarks that he got nine people murdered for Nitish’s support and said that his statement was misunderstood. Instead, he blamed the RJD for getting his nine kin killed when Lalu Prasad was in power in Bihar.
Apparently, after getting stuck in the thick of controversy, Singh, who enjoys influence in the Mokama region, said that he meant to say that nine members of his family were murdered during the previous RJD regime. “I meant to say that I had made such a sacrifice for Nitish,” he added.
He said that he himself was shot at and seriously injured during RJD rule. “All these things happened because we had aligned with Nitish.” His statement came within 24 hours after JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha clarified the party’s stand.
JD(U) national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad also corroborated Jha’s statement and said that Nitish has a clean image and that he never promoted people with criminal records. “Nitish Ji has an untainted record against violence and crime,” he told the media.
However, the Opposition RJD took a swipe at Anant Singh over his statement. RJD spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav called the statement an explicit confession of political violence, alleging that state power was built through alliances with criminal syndicates across Mokama, Motihari and Muzaffarpur.
Anant is peeved at the JD(U) for fielding his long-time political rival Neeraj Kumar from the Patna Graduates’ constituency. Neeraj, however, claimed that he was sure of his victory in the election. “I don’t care who is saying what. I am focused on the election only,” he told this reporter.
Voting for the eight Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies will be held on October 23, and counting will take place on October 27.
