JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, on Monday, held his first press conference after being sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar. He stated that he tried hard to save the grand alliance, but things were getting difficult for him after corruption charges against RJD leaders including Lalu Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav who was the deputy chief minister. “I didn’t have a choice as I tolerated everything. I thought this happens in the alliance,” said Kumar. The chief minister once again said that he requested the RJD leaders a several time to come clean on the corruption charges and explain them to the public. “But it didn’t happen,” added Kumar.
Kumar further added that Narendra Modi will return as India’s Prime Minister in 2019 since there is nobody to take him on. “Nobody in India has the capacity to take on Modi Ji,” he said.
Lashing at the RJD over corruption charges, Kumar said, “After the cabinet meeting, Tejashwi asked me what to explain. I told him that I don’t have much experience about property, deposit, land etc. I just told him to clarify his stand on the allegations. Merely saying that it is political vendetta may be good for your supporters, but for common people, it was not sufficient,”
With Kumar’s decision to end the alliance, there have been rifts in the Janata Dal (U). Sharad Yadav, a former president of the JD-U, who reportedly complained to party colleagues that Nitish had not consulted him before deciding to embrace the BJP.
Responding to the criticism over deserting a secular alliance and joining a communal force which he in the past has attacked, Kumar said, “Secularism ka chaadar odh karke log sampati arjit karen, yahin matlab hai secularism ka? (Making illagal properties behind the veil of secularism. Is that what secularism means)
He asserted that had the RJD leaders explained the corruption charges, the alliance would have survived. “I had asked to explain the corruption allegations, had they done that, the situation could have been different,” said Kumar.
