In an apparent move to score off his political arch-rival on national turf Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday unveiled a life-size statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in his home constituency Nalanda. Earlier, Modi had announced to install a gigantic statue of Patel in Gujarat with iron agricultural tools collected from all parts of the country.
To outdo his Gujarat counterpart in his strategic move, Nitish Kumar acted first and fast in installing Patel’s statue on the premises of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel College at Biharsharief in Nalanda and called him a “great personality who was self-made man and written his own story”. Nitish Kumar’s political abhorrence to Narendra Modi is widely known and written.
“By unveiling the statue of Sardar Patel in Nalanda, Nitish Kumar might have tried to send message that he does first what Narendra Modi declares to do. Its smart move of political one-upmanship,” said a political observer.
Now where this game of one-upmanship between the two leaders would lead before the next general elections would be interesting to watch, he said further while adding that “for the time being Nitish Kumar has scored over Modi on Patel”.
“He was such a great personality who had even impressed Mahatma Gandhi with his remarkable organising capacity,” said Nitish Kumar while unveiling the Iron Man’s statue. He also announced Rs 1-crore grant to the college for college building construction.
“The State Government will soon be sending a team of engineers for the construction of the quake-resistant college building. The college should run properly and make its mark as it is named after such a great leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,” the Chief Minister said.
Nitish Kumar also inaugurated the girls’ hostel on the college premises. Earlier, the Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s most probable face for the Prime Ministerial post Narendra Modi had announced to install a gigantic statue of Sardar Patel with irons used by farmers in agricultural tools from across the country. He has also appealed to the farmers of the country to donate such unused iron tools to install what he called the “Statue of Unity” in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Post-NDA split on June 16, the State unit of the BJP even had started their poll campaign from Nalanda, home constituency of Nitish Kumar and had set off its move to collect iron tools from Nalanda itself.
“We’d start collecting iron tools from farmers from Nitish Kumar’s stronghold Nalanda itself and show him how the Gujarat Chief Minister is getting support not anywhere else but from Nalanda,” said State BJP leader Giriraj Singh.
Nitish Kumar had snapped his party’s alliance with BJP on June 16 on when Modi was declared chairman of BJP’s campaign committee and “most likely to be the PM’s candidate”.