PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday launched a sharp attack on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founder Lalu Prasad Yadav over dynastic politics over the party fielding his two daughters for the Lok Sabha elections apart from his two MLA sons.
“How many people of one family are contesting the elections? I am now chief minister for 18 years but I never promoted my family. Nobody even knows the names of my immediate family members. But there are people where wife, sons, daughters all are being promoted,” Kumar said at the campaign in Nawada in support of the alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Vivek Thakur. To be sure, Vivek Thakur, a Rajya Sabha member, is the son of former union minister Dr CP Thakur.
Kumar’s swipe was directed at Lalu Prasad Yadav, who first became Bihar chief minister in 1990. He nominated his wife Rabri Devi as the chief minister when he was arrested and held as an undertrial in the Bihar fodder scam in 1997. He backed his wife’s re-election as chief minister who continued – there were two brief spells of President’s Rule in between apart from Nitish Kumar headinig a government that survived just seven days in March 2000 – till 2005 when Nitish Kumar came to power in alliance with the BJP.
“Before me, the husband-wife team was ruling. What was the scenario then? People would not come out of their house after dusk,” Kumar recalled.
“Just look at how many family members have enjoyed power and how many have got tickets. This is parivarvad,” the Janata Dal (U) chief said, referring to RJD president’s sons, former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and former minister Tej Pratap Yadav, and daughters Misa Bharti and Rohini Acharya, who are RJD candidates from Patliputra and Saran respectively.
Nitish Kumar also attacked former deputy Tejashwi yadav over his repeated claims taking credit for the government providing jobs. “Recruitments were taking place in line with policy decisions taken before he (Tejashwi) arrived on the scene. But he kept talking big, so I removed him ,” said Kumar.
“They (RJD) got the opportunity from 1990 to 2005. How much development they did do? Now, when we are progressing, they want to rule us. Never let that happen. Now, there are no more Hindu-Muslim riots in Bihar. Earlier, only riots were happening here,” said Kumar.
“I have been with the BJP for long. We formed government in Bihar in 2005 together. I may have gone hither and thither a couple of times. But now I am back for good,” Kumar told a gathering.
Meanwhile, the JD (U) also released a list of 118 killings during the RJD regime and demanded that Tejashwi Yadav come out with a reply on the massacres that took place during Lalu-Rabri regime.
“The 10-year rule of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi would long be remembered for massacres. Their government could not prevent ghastly killings of hundreds of Dalits in central and south Bihar,” said JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.
