Nitish defends Bansal, attacks Narendra Modi

The Bihar CM also indirectly questions extremely backward caste credentials of his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi

With the fast changing political scenario, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday gave his ally Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) another jolt. The senior Janta Dal-United (JD-U) leader refused to support BJP's demand for Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's resignation.

He also indirectly questioned the extremely backward caste (EBC) credentials of his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi.

"It is a personal decision to resign or not," Kumar told media person on the sidelines of the "Janta Durbar" programme, "It was a shocking incident and it shook the entire system... But to resign on moral grounds is a personal decision and I cannot say anything on this." He also said that he believes the CBI will conduct a fair investigation in this matter. "The matter came to light when he (Bansal) is still on the post. Therefore, I do not think that CBI's investigation can be affected in this matter," added the Bihar CM.

Kumar, however, ducked the questions regarding changes in the CBI's status reports on Coal block allocation by the Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar. "There is nothing for me to say on this. The matter is now sub judice. I only know what media has reported. There is a question of prerogative, but resignation is a matter of personal choice," he commented.

However, the most seething, but indirect, attack by the chief minister came on a question regarding Modi. Kumar said, "I do not anything on this. But time will tell who belongs to which caste soon enough." His deputy in government and senior BJP leader, Sushil Kumar Modi said on Thursday that the next BJP Prime-Ministerial candidate of BJP will be from EBC, an indication towards Narendra Modi.