A key aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in Bhopal betrayed “worry” in the BJP camp following the “supreme success” of the opposition meeting here last week.
State minister and senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary also alleged that by touching upon the uniform civil code(UCC), Modi was aiming at communal polarisation.
“Earlier, people in the BJP used to say that opposition leaders will never agree to even sit together because of mutual differences. The June 23 meeting in Patna refuted their claim. The way the PM spoke about opposition unity shows his worry and bears testimony to the supreme success of our opposition unity drive”, said the JD(U) leader.
Nitish Kumar, JD(U)'s supreme leader, had snapped ties with the BJP last year, vowing to defeat the saffron party in next year's Lok Sabha polls by uniting all parties opposed to it.
Last week, leaders of over a dozen parties, some of them from far-off regions like Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu, and some others bitter rivals like the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, and the Left, attended the conclave hosted by Kumar and agreed to build on the momentum at the next meeting proposed in Shimla in July.
Chaudhary also asserted that there was "nothing new" in the PM's fulminations against corruption and nepotism, pointing out that the BJP has often ended up having a truck with those it accused of graft.
"Also, it has become common knowledge that parties and coalitions opposed to the BJP, like the Mahagathbandhan that rules Bihar, are being selectively targeted by central agencies. The people are watching”, alleged the Bihar minister.
On the charge of dynasty rule, railing against which the PM had mentioned families of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and former Congress president, Chaudhary said “The Mahagathbandhan enjoys the trust of the people who are well aware of who lead these alliance partners of ours. The PM is coming out with no great news”.
The JD(U) leader also mocked the PM's claim that the public mood was in favour of the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls, pointing out, “he said the same during the assembly polls in Karnataka. His party could not win seats equal in number to the quintals of flower petals which the BJP showered on him during canvassing”.
The JD(U) leader added that the UCC was a “communally sensitive issue” and “nothing but worry in the BJP camp explains it being raised, publicly, at the highest level".
-With PTI Input
