BJP assails Nitish for blaming it for salt rumour

Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi today hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for blaming the party for "spreading the rumour" about scarcity of salt and dared him to prove the charge.
"If Kumar fails to prove the charge then he should resign from his post as he cannot get away by blaming the Opposition for all ills gripping Bihar ever since the JD(U) split from BJP in June this year," Modi said in a statement here.
"This is not for the first time that he has blamed us for an incident in Bihar as he had earlier held us responsible for the Mashrakh midday meal tragedy, poisoning of handpumps and his ministers had gone as far as to accuse us of having carried out terror attacks in Bodh Gaya and Patna. None of these charges have stuck to us during the probe," he said.

The rumour, he said, had started in Odisha and then moved on to grip West Bengal and the north eastern states before the state governments took strict steps to bring the situation under control.
"Does the Bihar Chief Minister want to say that it is BJP which has spread the rumour in all the states?" Modi asked.
Instead of "passing the buck" to his adversaries for "all ills in his government" Kumar should order a probe, he said, adding the rumour had spread due to the incompetence of the state government which allowed traders to make hefty profit by selling the essential item at a high price.

"Kumar has conveniently tried to divert public attention from the failures of his government by blaming BJP for the rumour about shortage of salt in Bihar," he said.
"The baseless charge by Kumar against BJP on the salt rumour points to his nervousness after losing political turf in Bihar due to growing strength of the party after the success of its Hunkar Rally as well as popularity of Narendra Modi," he said.
Earlier in the day, Kumar had indirectly blamed BJP for spreading the rumour which led to panic buying by consumers last week.