BJP will get absolute majority in Bihar polls: Venkaiah Naidu

Says Lalu-Nitish tie-up is totally an opportunistic alliance and that people will not appreciate it

Terming it as an "opportunistic alliance", Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today stated that people won't appreciate the coming together of RJD and JD(U) even as he poised the BJP-led NDA of securing majority in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

"... Our party units are saying - I had been to Bihar one month back - that we will win with absolute majority along with (Ramvilas) Pasawn ji," Naidu told PTI here.

"It (Lalu-Nitish tie-up) is totally an opportunistic alliance. I don't think people will appreciate it," said the senior BJP leader.

The Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad may have forgotten their earlier political battles, the people of Bihar have not.

Naidu alleged that Kumar rode to power along with BJP after waging an election battle against former Bihar chief minister Prasad, calling his rule as 'Jungle Raj'.

He claimed that another positive reason for BJP was that even poorer sections of the society "are impressed by the social security measures taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Replying to a question, Naidu said Bihar can rise above caste politics which was evident in the last Lok Sabha elections when his party won 35 of the 40 seats in the state.

Moreover, people also want good governance which they saw during Nitish-Sushil Modi regime in Bihar and were seeing at the Centre and hence would rise above caste politics, he said.

"Time has come to think beyond caste. Can caste feed you? Caste can only help some politicians to get some position. But people want development and good governance," Naidu said adding that the 'caste card would boomerang'.

Asked whether the front formed by H D Deve Gowda, Nitish, Lalu and Cogress would affect BJP's prospects in Bihar polls, Naidu said they would not succeed because there was no ideological equation among them amidst personality clashes galore.