Jagannath Mishra Praises Bjp

Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, who left the Congress to float his own regional outfit before the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, yesterday praised the BJP-led coalition government for proving its secular credentials and proving wrong all those who have been forging unholy political alliances in the name of protecting secularism.

He, however, ruled out returning to the Congress even if his demands made at the time of resigning from the party were fulfilled.

Mishra had quit the Congress alleging that the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri had rigged the AICC elections. Further, he had demanded that Sonia Gandhi take over the leadership of the Congress and that the party dissociate itself from the Rabri Devi-led Rashtriya Janata Dal government in Bihar. Now I am a separate political entity with a separate political party and people have liked me that way, he said.

 

Though he used the phrase ruled out to describe his response to questions on whether he would return to the Congress, he did not use the term even once when repeatedly asked whether he was heading towards joining hands with the BJP.

Mishra said the government was obliged to dismiss the Rabri government in Bihar because both the BJP and the Samata Party its ally in the Centre had won the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar on that promise. Now, there is no escape for the government, but to relieve the people of the state from the corrupt RJD government, he said.

He said the Congress had finished itself by sitting in RJDs lap. The five Lok Sabha seats won by the Congress in the state were actually RJDs.

He said if the eight seats which the Congress contested in the State in alliance with the RJD were left out, the votes polled by the Congress on the other seats were similar to that of candidates belonging to his party.

Mishra opposed all moves by secular forces, including the Congress, to attempt to bring down the government in the name of preserving secularism.