The BJP is looking forward to fresh elections in Bihar with senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi claiming on Monday that his party was not interested “to regain power” or be in the opposition” in the State following the internal break-up in the ruling JD(U).
Stating that people’s mandate has been “betrayed” by former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “opportunistic politics”, Modi said here that his party would hold its legislative party meet on February 18 to formulate its stand on the trust motion faced by Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi vote on February 20 in the State Assembly.
He said let JD (U) decide whether it wants to be in Government or in the Opposition. “There is no concept of unattached member in the Constitution”, said BJP leader. Responding to a question, Modi said, “We are not for the Government nor for the opposition”. On the question whether Manjhi would be joining BJP, he quipped “ he has not given any application..”.
Modi said it was not for the first time that Kumar had resigned and recalled former Chief Minister quitting four times at the Centre and State and “each time was back with his post” after taking “ high moral ground”.
Counting “three mistakes” of Kumar, the BJP leader said first, he broke BJP-JDU alliance, shook hands with lalu Prasad Yadav even though peoples mandate was against it and thirdly appointed Manjhi, thinking, he would be in his pocket and then removing him after the Chief Minister started acting on his own.
Senior BJP leader from Bihar held Kumar for being solely responsible for throwing Bihar into a “constitutional crisis” and political instability due to his “craving for power” and charged him with “misusing” the Speaker’s post for his politics.
“We have been seeing the political drama in Bihar for the last 20 months. Bihar has been thrown into a constitutional crisis and political instability for which Nitish Kumar is solely responsible. Asked whether BJP will support Manjhi in the trust vote or not, he said “BJP will take its decision on the floor of the Assembly when the trust vote comes up. We have all our options open.”
The former deputy chief minister in BJP-JDU coalition said ever since BJP split with JD-U, “governance has become the biggest casualty in Bihar”. Describing Manjhi as “new dalit icon”, he said Kumar turned against his after Chief Minister first started changing Kumar-loyalist officials in the state. He said Kumar was battling against a massive anti-incumbency as also revolt of ‘Maha Dalits’ in the State.