RJD gets ready for polls, targets Nitish Kumar on scams

Patna: In what appears to be RJD getting battle-ready for the polls in 2020, party chief Lalu Yadav on Saturday hinted that the party had started drawing strategies to corner CM Nitish Kumar and BJP in the state Assembly elections. Lalu Yadav also maintained that as the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) had lost credibility in Bihar after the grand secular alliance collapsed in July this year, they were directly competing with the BJP.

“Nitish Kumar has lost credibility and he will get a fitting reply from people in elections. The fight will be between RJD and the BJP. The JD(U) will be nowhere,” Lalu Yadav said.  

Sources claim that the RJD chief is also likely to hold meetings with leaders of other regional parties to draw poll strategies. Reports suggest that Lalu Yadav is already in touch with a few regional leaders including the RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha.

RJD insiders claimed that Lalu Yadav and estranged JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav have been making strategies to corner Nitish Kumar and his party on two major issues —  liquor prohibition failure and series of scams including Srijan and the recently surfaced toilet scam.

 “Nitish Kumar can get an idea of scams at any point of time (sic),”  RJD chief Lalu Yadav said in a tweet. He took a dig at Nitish Kumar after the government officials and NGOs were charged with misappropriating funds to the tune of `13 crores meant for construction of toilets in Patna.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar had found irregularities in the withdrawal of funds during the review meeting of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). An initial probe showed that the executive engineer associated with the department had failed to prove that the money was transferred to the NGOs to construct toilets. The committee formed to probe the matter had also found that payments to several beneficiaries for the toilets constructed during 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014- 15 were pending.  Two government officials and four NGOs have been charged with misappropriating funds, officials said.

The toilet scam is a major scam after Srijan of Bhagalpur in which over Rs 1,000 crore were allegedly diverted to the account of NGOs.  

“This government didn’t even leave money sanctioned for toilets. What will Nitish Kumar answer to people about these two major scams?”  Lalu Yadav said.