RJD sceptical about Nitish's secular credentials

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Press Trust of India Patna
Last Updated : Jul 09 2013 | 10:40 PM IST
RJD today expressed doubts over the secular credentials of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claiming that despite parting ways with the NDA, he would eventually return to it after the next Lok Sabha polls.
"Kumar has deliberately orchestrated JD(U)'s much hyped up split from NDA to claim a secular image for himself and woo Muslims to vote for his party in the next general elections and eventually return to the NDA," senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddique told reporters.
Reacting strongly to the CM's charge that RJD and BJP have joined forces and may even go for seat sharing in the general elections to defeat JD(U), Siddique said the allegation was 'farthest from the truth' given the divergent ideologies of the two parties and Kumar himself has not ruled out return to the NDA as he has problems with Modi and not with BJP.
Kumar and his party JD(U) had parted ways with BJP over the subtle projection of Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, which he wanted for himself and not for any other ideological considerations, he said.
Also Kumar shares the Sangh Parivar's political ideology unreservedly and had never tried to hide it for the better part of his political career, Siddique said claimed that Kumar will return to the NDA-fold - most likely after the next general elections.
Siddique, who was the leader of opposition in the legislative assembly till the JD(U)-BJP split last month, said Kumar had been an avid protagonist of RSS ideology during his nearly two decade-long association with it and had used the Sangh Parivar's propaganda tactics to malign RJD by tagging it with BJP to woo the minority community for votes.
"The sizeable Muslim population in Bihar will not be befooled by Kumar's nefarious designs as the community has seen the state politics playing out over the past 20 years and the memory of Kumar's association with the Sangh Pariwar and his bonhomie with Modi all these years was not lost.
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First Published: Jul 09 2013 | 10:40 PM IST

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