Nitish Kumar was keen to end alliance with BJP in 2010: Sushil Modi

Patna: Bihar’s former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was keen to break his party JD-U’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2010 itself.

“Nitish Kumar wanted to break or end his party JD-U’s alliance with BJP after Bihar assembly polls in 2010. It was not materialised due to the fact that JD-U failed to get majority of its own and BJP won 91 assembly seats, it was much more than what Nitish Kumar expected (from BJP),” Modi, the senior BJP leader, said at a function organised by a news channel here.

Modi is widely seen as the potential chief ministerial candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), if voted to power.

The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the BJP contested the last assembly polls together under the leadership of Nitish Kumar and the JD-U won 115 assembly seats.

The BJP-led NDA has not officially named its chief ministerial candidate so far.

Modi said Nitish Kumar ended 17-year old alliance of the JD-U with BJP for his personal arrogance in 2013. “After that Nitish Kumar has pushed Bihar into political instability and derailed development process.”

Modi said how could people forget the jungle raj of 15 years. “Nitish Kumar can forget it to join hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad for the sake of power. People cannot forget jungle raj.”

Modi said that if people would give a chance to BJP-led NDA to rule in Bihar, things would be changed for good and positive.

Modi, however, admitted that once he had also described Nitish Kumar as the Prime Ministerial material.

 

—IANS