A day after the exit of Janta Dal United (JDU) from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday claimed that Nitish Kumar’s party wanted him to become Vice-President of India, a claim dismissed by the JD(U) as “white lies.”
“Some JD(U) people had come to say ‘Nitish Kumar the Vice President and the BJP should rule in Bihar’,” the BJP Rajya Sabha member said at a Press conference just before Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for a record eighth time.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan ‘Lalan’ Singh who also held his presser in Patna squarely dismissed Sushil’s allegations.
He said when media reports first speculated that Kumar would likely be the presidential or vice presidential candidate, the JD(U) had clearly denied the possibility of any such thing happening.
“They are just making up stories,” the JD(U) chief said and mocked Sushil as a leader “abandoned by the roadside” by his own party as a “punishment” for “close relations he had with Kumar.”
“He has been shunted by the BJP as a punishment for the close relations he shared with Kumar. May such antics bring him some degree of political rehabilitation,” Lalan said.
At his Press conference in Patna, Sushil, who has known Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad for five decades, also alleged that the JD(U) supremo insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of Bihar who had voted for the NDA.
The BJP leader, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, alleged that Kumar will “ditch the RJD and try to split it, taking advantage of RJD boss Prasad’s illness”.
He refuted the JD(U)’s claims of a “conspiracy” hatched through RCP Singh, claiming that the former Union Minister had been inducted into the Cabinet after consent was obtained from Kumar by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “Kumar should not tell such lies,” Sushil said.
“We will like to see how the new Bihar Government functions with (RJD leader) Tejashwi as de facto CM; it will fall before next polls,” the BJP leader added.
“He (Kumar) can never get the same respect he was being given in BJP, in the RJD and Congress. Kumar says his party (JD-U) was being split. The BJP never betrayed any of its allies. We have only broken those who betrayed us... Be it the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra which was in alliance with BJP. And when the Shiv Sena betrayed us what was the consequence?” Sushil earlier asked.
“The BJP has never betrayed anyone. We made Kumar the Bihar CM, five times. The RJD made him the CM twice, we did that five times. We had a relationship for 17 years. But you severed ties (with us) twice,” Sushil said.
“In 2020, we got votes in the name of Narendra Modi. Had we received votes in your (Kumar’s) name we would’ve crossed 150-175 & you wouldn’t have won just 43. When it seemed the situation wasn’t good, Modi did 3-4 rallies in one day. 2020 mandate was for Modi,” the BJP leader asserted, slamming Kumar for allegedly choosing people who have been charge-sheeted in corruption cases.