Soon after declaring Nitish Kumar as the leader of ‘secular alliance’, question is posed to the BJP who would be NDA’s leader and CM face. RJD supremo lalu Prasad, who accepted Nitish as alliance leader said, “If BJP has courage, it should reveal the name of its CM face.” He added, “The BJP cannot afford because declaration of one name will disintegrate the party. We have taken a bold step and scored over BJP.”
The RJD boss said the BJP tried its best to create bad blood between him and Nitish by spreading canard. “BJP is Bharat Jalao Party and we are fire brigades,” he said. lalu denied any pressure on him to accept Nitish and said they joined to crush to hood of the ‘communal cobra’. Taking a dig at Nitish’s publicity campaign, BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said the CM was still shy of using the photographs of AICC president Sonia Gandhi and lalu in his ad campaign.
“Nitish is CM face of not only JD(U) but also of RJD and Congress so he should also use photos of the leaders of the two parties. It will help people to realize that he is being projected by the parties responsible for 15 years long jungle raj in Bihar and corruption raj in the country,” said Modi.
He said the public in last lok Sabha polls rejected both Sonia and lalu and Nitish had made fun of that public mandate. Now he has aligned with those forces to befool the people. Modi further alleged that Nitish was just a mask of the alliance and the real power would remain with Sonia and lalu. He quoted lalu saying that he was root and Nitish was a branch. “Similarly as oil and water cannot mix, lalu and Nitish cannot be united. They has joined under compulsion but the game of check and mate continues. The gainer in the election will be lalu. But for BJP it is good that they have united,” he said.
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said Nitish has got the crutches of jungle raj and corruption. Denying that he could be in the race for CM post, he said his only effort is to install a BJP-led NDA Government in Bihar. But no leader of BJP and its allies is ready to comment on the leadership issue. Union Minister and RlSP president Upendra Kushwaha favoured that NDA should also accelerate process of seat sharing after the alliance stitched by RJD.JD(U) and Congress.
However, Modi said, “It is immaterial who the leader of an unholy and opportunist alliance is, BJP is ready to face them. lalu and Nitish are holding hands of each other but both are carrying daggers to stab each other the moment any of them gets opportunity.” Kushwaha had earlier favoured projection of a leader. But contrary to that lJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is in favour that election be faught under the leadership of Narendra Modi.