Patna: Three days after he dumped the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday proved his majority in the legislature and said his former ally won’t win the next Lok Sabha battle.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to promote divisive politics, he said the policies of consultation which it believed in under Atal Behari Vajpayee’s leadership had ended.
In a speech in the assembly during a trust motion he moved to prove his majority, Nitish Kumar said India was built on secular foundations and his party won’t tolerate anyone trying to cause a religious divide.
“The country should be run in a manner so as to take everyone along... Coalition governments are the norm now. No party should be under the false premise that they can run the country on their own steam,” he said.
Referring to Vajpayee, who was prime minister from 1998 to 2004, he said: “The work ethics of Atalji was based on how to take everyone along, based on consultations... But now it has changed.”
Nitish Kumar sailed through with 126 votes in his favour after 91 BJP members and a Lok Janshakti Party legislator walked out of the 243-member house before the voting.
The Congress, which has four members, voted for him. This triggered accusation from the BJP that Nitish Kumar — described as a secular person by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—had joined hands with the Congress.
“JD-U has shown its colour by participating in the Congress conspiracy,” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. “They are now bound to Congress with the glue of corruption.”
Criticising the BJP, with which his party split last week after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was made the party’s election campaign chief, Nitish Kumar said the BJP’s dream of ruling India would be shattered.
He said the BJP had no chance of winning the 2014 Lok Sabha election. “Even if we remained with them, notching up 200 seats would be difficult... Don’t be under the illusion that you can do it alone. This is the time of coalitions,” he said.
Taking an apparent dig at Modi’s Gujarat model of development, Nitish Kumar said: “What vikas (development) model is this where you improve (the condition of) areas that are already good?
“What kind of improvement is it?” He said the BJP had benefited by aligning with his Janata Dal-United (JD-U).
“We will not tolerate thopna (imposition of views). We are for the policy of taking everyone along and against divisive policies,” he asserted.
In the house yesterday, Nitish Kumar got the support of JD-U’s 117 legislators, four Independents and Congress members each and the Communist Party of India legislator. One JD-U member is in jail.
IANS
