Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA Government in Bihar on Friday proved its majority in the Assembly getting 131 votes while the Opposition managed to secure 108 votes.
In the House of 243 members, 239 votes were exercised with one MlA each from the RJD, Congress and BJP not turning up and the Speaker not casting his vote. Both the CM and Deputy CM Sushil Modi are not voters as they are members of the legislative Council. Not satisfied with the voice vote, the Opposition forced division of vote.
While leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav vehemently opposed the motion through his hard hitting speech, the Chief Minister said the mandate in 2015 was not to turn a blind eye to corruption and asserted that his joining hands with the BJP did not mean any compromise with his commitment to secularism.
“I was not supposed to serve the interest of one family. I am here to serve the people of Bihar,” said Nitish and made a swipe at RJD leaders for their arrogance and refusing to accept the existence of the JD(U). “Remember in the 2015 election, who was the face,” he said and termed the RJD as a party in illusion and arrogance.
Nitish said secularism was being used to conceal the crime and corruption and hide the paap (sins). “For me secularism is an ideology and not propaganda. I don’t need certificate of secularism from anybody,” the CM retaliated on accusation that he joined hands with “communalists”.
He also recalled the Bhagalpur communal riots of 1989 and closure of cases by the RJD Government and said he ordered reopening of the closed cases during his first tenure and ensured compensation and monthly stipend for the victims apart from return of the encroached lands and properties. He said when he was the CM of the NDA for over seven years he initiated many welfare measures for the minorities.
The CM said since there was time constraint he would reply to all allegations one by one at appropriate time.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said the mandate for the Mahagathbandhan was for effective governance, control on crime and corruption and not for the protection of people like Shahabuddin and Raj Ballabh Yadav and amassing benami assets.
Tejashwi, who for the first time sat on Opposition benches and donned the mantle of leader of Opposition, hit hard at Nitish and the BJP calling the CM a murderer of democracy and betraying the mandate of people. He said the entire drama had been enacted for the sake of the image of one individual. “When his ( Nitish’s) existence was at stake, he came to us. We saved him from defeat and humiliation. Did not he know that lalu Prasad was tainted and RJD was a corrupt partyIJ” he said and added that when the “Vikas Purush” fought alone he got seven seats in 1995 Assembly polls and only two seats in 2014 lok Sabha elections. “This shows Nitish has no political base,” he said.
Hitting at Sushil Modi, he said all the BJP Ministers had been sacked by Nitish in 2013 and the party was thrown out. “You should feel ashamed that you were sacked as Deputy CM. Nitish had no courage to ask for my resignation or sack me. This 28-years old young man has been implicated in false cases and the nation knows this fact.”
Tejashwi said after this betrayal no party and no person would have faith in Nitish because everybody was convinced that he could use anybody for his own sake. “He even used Gandhi for his image and later joined the party of the Nathuram Godse followers,” he alleged. Tejashwi said he was made Deputy CM not out of putra moh (love for son) by his father. Had there been feeling of putra moh he would have been Chief Minister because the RJD is the single largest party.
BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav agreed with Tejashwi that younger generation was angry but not because he was ousted from power but they were furious that how a young man became owner of huge properties that too without any known source of income. He said if his resignation had not been sought, why lalu and RJD did repeatedly said Tejashwi would not resign.