Sushil questions Nitish on Cong support

Says, "Is the Chief Minister's criticism of Congress for real or is he taking the people of Bihar for a ride?"

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has charged Bihar Chief Minister with "duplicity" for slamming Congress for being responsible for 1984 anti-Sikh riots and 1989 Bhagalpur riots and yet taking its support for the survival of his government.

"It is ridiculous that the Chief Minister has gone hammers and tongs against the Congress for being responsible for the Sikh riots and Bhagalpur riots even as his minority government depends on the four MLAs of that party for survival," Modi said in a statement.

"Is the Chief Minister's criticism of Congress for real or is he taking the people of Bihar for a ride?"

Kumar, he said, had been desperate to cobble up a pre-poll alliance with Congress for which he had send out signals to that party and thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a number of occasions.

He had even dropped visiting Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the gates of Sadaqat Asharam, the Congress headquarters in Patna, Modi said.

Claiming that Congress and JD(U) were friends despite the Chief Minister's diatribes, Modi asked Kumar to explain whether or not he would jump onto the Congress bandwagon after the general elections to strengthen the hands of that party's "undeclared prime ministerial hopeful" Rahul Gandhi.

It was Congress which rejected JD(U)'s offer for an alliance, but going by Kumar's pursuance of "convenient politics", he would not hesitate in joining Congress after the general elections, if it helped him politically, Modi said.

Criticising the Chief Minister for holding BJP accountable for the 2002 riots in Gujarat, he said Kumar had never found any fault either with the Gujarat Chief Minister or BJP during his long 17 years of association with the party and even kept mum on the riots for 12 years.

Kumar had lavished fulsome praise on Modi at a function in Bhuj in 2003 and even asked every body to move on with life after the riots, he said.

Modi questioned Kumar's tirade against Modi after the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Supreme Court gave a clean chit to him in connection with the 2002 riots.