Patna, July 25 (PTI) Upendra Kushwaha, a top leader of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), on Monday squarely blamed ally BJP for the perception gaining ground that all was not well in the NDA in the state.
The JD(U) parliamentary board chief also slammed state BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal for having recently claimed that Bihar was fast becoming a hub of anti-national terror activities.
There are no major issues between the two parties. But utterances of BJP leaders often give rise to a wrong impression. They should refrain from making intemperate statements, Kushwaha said, replying to queries from journalists about JD(U)-BJP ties.
Asked about the comments made by Jaiswal last week, in the backdrop of the busting of a PFI terror module in the state, the JD(U) leader sarcastically remarked that from the way he speaks it seems he is privy to more facts than the administration. If it is so, he should share the same with officials lest he may stand accused of concealing sensitive information .
Let us be very clear that the busting of the module is not a cause for great alarm. Such modules have been busted in many other states in the past. The administrative machinery is handling the issue competently, he asserted.
Jaiswal's comments were seen as yet another attempt by the state BJP chief to berate the administration of the Nitish Kumar, the state's longest-serving chief minister. Earlier, he had criticised the government on issues like failure to utilise central funds, inadequate police crackdown on Agnipath protesters who targeted BJP leaders and reluctance to take population control measures.
Kushwaha also disapproved of speculations in a section of the media that the CM's decision to skip President Droupadi Murmu's swearing-in stemmed from his unhappiness with the BJP.
The chief minister must be having other pressing engagements. Please do not draw reckless conclusions, he said.
Asked about the proposed tour of big leaders like Union minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda to the state later this week which is expected to energize the saffron party's cadre, Kushwaha said it does not concern us. They are coming for a function of their party. In Bihar, the biggest leader is Nitish Kumar, without a doubt .
The JD(U) leader, who has in the past asserted that Kumar will lead the NDA in the state for as long as the coalition survives in Bihar in an obvious attempt to snub the ambitious BJP, reiterated that the chief minister will complete his term, which ends in 2025, without any hitch .
He, however, got non-committal when asked whether the two parties will contest together the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections a year later.
Who can predict what is going to happen in the distant future, said Kushwaha who has been in the forefront of the JD(U)'s attempts to hold on to its pride of place in the NDA despite having suffered a major setback in the last assembly elections.
