RJD boss lalu Prasad on Thursday vented his ire against JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the latter backstabbed him by changing sides.
"The (BJP-Nitish) match was already fixed and his son Tejashwi was made a pretext to conclude it on Wednesday," he alleged.
Prasad, while speaking to media persons at the State Guest House after his appearance before special CBI Courts here in connection with the fodder scam cases, also claimed that it was the last phase of Kumar’s political career as his wickets will now fall down one by one.
Prasad was speaking in the light of Kumar’s resignation on Wednesday from the post citing corruption cases against RJD leaders of the Grand Alliance, including Tejashwi Yadav.
“This match was fixed from the beginning and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish had been meeting at several occasions for the last six months. Recently also, media had reported about their meeting at a farm house which was also fixed by Sushil Modi,” said Prasad. Alleging him of having an important role in his conviction, Prasad also charged Nitish of dragging him and his family into CBI and Income Tax cases to damage the mass base enjoyed by him and also to malign his image by making changes in public perception.
Calling Nitish an opportunist, Prasad said that if both the alliance parties, RJD and JD (U), had been given mandate against the BJP and RSS to rule in Bihar for next five years, then how they could disregard it.
"Nitish is a hypocrite who imposed liquor ban in Bihar, but it is now being home delivered there. I had told him that it is not going to work practically in the State and there will be operational problems to impose the ban, but he did not agree," said Prasad. He said that whenever attempts were made by the BJP to malign his image, he was always there to defend him and had he been greedy, Nitish would not have been the CM as he had 80 MlAs with him.
"I was not very much convinced to let him become the CM as I knew his nature, but when he said that we have become old now…… these young people will now become the Chief Minister, I allowed him to go ahead but he backstabbed us," said Prasad. The leader who vowed to bring development in the State, has pushed it towards destruction, he added.
The former Bihar Chief Minister further said that Kumar had never asked resignation from his Deputy Chief Minister son Tejashwi Yadav and had asked only to explain the allegations made by the BJP in the public domain.
"When we requested for appointment, Governor Kesari Nath Tripathy gave us the time of 11 am before which the game was over and Nitish was administered oath of office for the Chief Ministerial post," said Prasad. The Governor had said that they had two days in hand…. the fight will continue, he said.
"We will continue our fight and discussions are on to challenge it in Supreme Court. I will talk to Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani also. If we are the largest party in the Assembly, then why we were not invited to form the Government. Had we not been able to form it, then others could have been given a chance," Prasad said.
He, however, said that it’s good that Nitish has changed sides as he had been feeling mentally light after the fake leader had left the grand alliance.
later, Prasad returned to Patna after getting exemption from appearance in the court on July 28 and 29 on the ground that the defense witnesses could not be summoned due to heavy rains for the last five days.