Nitish bashes Congress, says it dumped Bapu ideology

Patna: Fear of a split within the grand secular alliance grew on Sunday after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar gave clear signs of differences with his coalition partner Congress and RJD.

Nitish Kumar who has been facing sharp criticism from coalition partners for destroying the Opposition’s unity by supporting Ram Nath Kovind said, “The Congress has lost moral right to teach lessons as they were the first to abandon Gandhi- Nehru ideology”.

Mr Kumar added, “The JD(U) is not a party which depends on others and my party will not compromise under any circumstances”.

Mr Kumar was addressing JD (U) workers during a state executive meeting in Patna.

Party sources said that the prime focus of the meeting was to increase political footprint of the party within the state.  Insiders said the chief minister urged party leaders to focus on the membership drive in areas where JD(U) was weak.

On the issue of strengthening the secular alliance, Mr Kumar said that efforts to bring like-minded forces on one platform failed twice earlier due to the Congress.

“We had tried to bring secular parties on one platform during the Assam elections and then again during the UP Assembly polls but we failed because the Congress didn’t show any interest,” the Bihar chief minister said.  

Senior party spokesperson Sanjay Singh said Mr Kumar would attend the RJD’s proposed rally in August, if invited.

It was earlier being speculated that the JD (U) would not participate in the RJD’s anti- BJP rally scheduled to be held on August 27 in Patna.

Speaking to party workers, Nitish Kumar also said that he was not in the race for the Prime Minister’s post with just 18 to 20 MPs.