Sushil Modi flays Nitish for aligning with RJD, Cong

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today charged Nitish Kumar of committing 'ideological somersault' by aligning with the RJD and Congress after partnering with the saffron party for 17 years.

Kumar must explain to the people of Bihar about the compulsion that made him align with the RJD and Congress, he told reporters here. Reminding the former chief minister that he had contested the 2005 Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP to rid Bihar of 'jungle raj' or 'aatank raj' of the RJD, Modi asked Kumar to tell people about reasons that has driven him back to the RJD-Congress coalition.

Modi mocked Kumar for JD(U)'s 'zero tolerance' stand on corruption and crime and asked as to how the party would now fulfil its commitment on the twin issues in partnership with the RJD which faced the taint of "corruption and patronising criminal elements."

Similarly, the senior JD(U) leader owed an explanation for dubbing the BJP as a communal party after severing alliance with it last year, Modi said. And if it was so, why did the Samata Party, of which he was a leading member, formed an alliance "With us soon after demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya and stayed with the NDA even after the 2002 Gujarat riots," the former deputy chief minister wondered. The senior BJP leader charged Modi, set to embark on a 'Sampark Yatra' from Bettiah later this year, with misusing the official machinery for political purposes.

"I will write a letter to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to instruct the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police (SPs) not to receive the ex-CM during his visits to districts," he said. If such facilities are extended to Kumar, then all ex-CMs like Jagannath Mishra, Lalu Prasad and others should also be accorded this honour, he said.

Similarly, the traffic in the districts must not be stopped to let the ex-CM's carcade move freely, the senior BJP leader said.