The BJP on Wednesday hit out at former ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for attending a convention of the ‘Third Front’ and also questioned his silence on the involvement of Indian Mujahideen in the Patna blasts.
Accusing Nitish of cozying up to the Congress, the Opposition party also criticised the Bihar Chief Minister for displaying brazen political opportunism.
“We would like to remind Nitish Kumar that he was cozying up to the Congress, which had put JP behind bars, murdered Democracy by imposing Emergency, curtailed freedom of Press and detained prominent leaders of the Opposition parties,” former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.
Claiming that people were fed up with the UPA and it would be suicidal for the Third Front parties to supplement the efforts of the Congress to deflect attention from real issues, Naidu said: “Everyone knows how nationalist the JD(U) is. When a jawan from Bihar died at the loC, one of his Ministers shamelessly commented that people join the Army to die.”
BJP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed: “A ritual is on in Delhi which takes place before every lok Sabha election. This is a quest for an illusory Third Front but the Third Front is history. It has no relevance for the present nor any promise for the future”.
Insisting that Modi was the target of the terrorists at the Patna rally, the BJP leader sought to know why Kumar has maintained a “conspicuous silence” on the involvement of Indian Mujahideen.
“Modi was the target and IM is responsible but Nitish Kumar did not mention this. Earlier, Bihar Police had refused to arrest Yasin Bhatkal though he had worked as a IM activist for two years in the Madhubani area. Tehseen Akhtar, who has been arrested in the blast case, was recruited by Bhatkal,” he said.