‘BJP trying to communalise Bihar’

PATNA: Bihar’s Grand Alliance leaders — Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad — on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to “communalise” the atmosphere in the poll-bound state, alleging that the party is in panic fearing “defeat.”
Kumar said the saffron party has neither any ‘leader’ nor any ‘policy and intention’ to show the people and therefore it is trying to communalise the situation.
“BJP in panic — without neta, niti & niyat in Bihar & facing defeat they’re brazenly attempting to communalise & mask it with Modi’s rhetorics,” Kumar said in a tweet.
Hitting out at the BJP, Lalu Prasad, a former Bihar chief minister, said: “These people seeing a sure defeat have no agenda and that’s why they have fallen on their tested communal agenda.”Targeting BJP president Amit Shah, he asked him “where is the developmental agenda of BJP?”
The comments by the two leaders came against the backdrop of the lynching of a man in Bishada village of Uttar Pradesh recently following rumours that the family had consumed and stored beef.
Addressing a public meeting, Kumar asked people to remain alert as there would be attempts to create tension among communities to rake up emotion before the five-phase Assembly polls beginning October 12.
Terming the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance a divided house, Kumar said a leader of one NDA constituent is making public statement against the leader of another partner.
Talking about senior BJP leaders being sidelined in the party, the chief minister said, “Shatrughan Sinha, whom we popularly know as Bihari Babu, has been sidelined in the party.
There was a day when a large number of crowd used to come in the name of Sinha but BJP leaders took benefit of the opportunity and addressed the public meetings. But now he has been sidelined.”