“The LJP will have to decide with whom it will go in the next general elections”
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday attacked the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi by saying that neither can the 2002 Gujarat riots be forgotten nor people behind it be forgiven.
He also ruled out his Jatana Dal (United)’s alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls.
“One thing is certain. Neither 2002 Gujarat riots can be forgotten nor people behind it be forgiven,” Nitish Kumar said here.
Without naming the Gujarat chief minister or the BJP, Nitish Kumar said some vested interests were trying to ensure that killing of innocent people in the Gujarat communal riots should be forgotten and those behind it forgiven.
But the country is not ready for this because people are sensitive and are concerned about one another.
On Sunday, Nitish Kumar attacked Modi when he said that the country’s leadership should be handed over to a man who has the faith of all sections of people and vision for the entire country.
He also ruled out an alliance of his party with the Congress in Bihar for the Lok Sabha polls.
“There is no question of an alliance of JD-U with the Congress in Bihar for the Lok Sabha polls,” Nitish Kumar said.
He said media speculations over the possibility of the JD-U alliance with the Congress are baseless. “It is a non-existent thing,” he said.
But, when asked about a tie-up with the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan, he said: “The LJP will have to decide with whom it will go in the next general elections.”
Meanwhile in Panaji, Goa, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed that Modi was at his “feku” (lying) best in his speech during a rally in the state on January 12.
AAP national executive member Dinesh Vaghela in his Facebook post said the Gujarat chief minister’s claim that the ailing BJP leader and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had no house of his own, was “a big lie.”
The Goa-based Vaghela claimed Vajpayee not only owns a house in Delhi, but also has a share in another in Gwalior.
“The details are there in Vajpayee’s pre-election affidavit. Vajpayee owns a house in East of Kailash in New Delhi according to his affidavit filed before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections,” Vaghela said.
Vajpayee’s Flat No 509, SFS Apartment at East of Kailash has an area of 150.32sq m and is worth Rs2.2mn, the affidavit then said.
The former prime minister also has a paternal share worth Rs600,000 in his ancestral home at Shinde ki Chhawni, Kamal Singh ka Bagh in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.
On his Facebook page, Vaghela says: “It is a feku claim... This is the big lie spoken by Modiji.”
Modi’s Goa rally was one of 100 whirlwind rallies undertaken by the BJP leader across India, and drew a record crowd of nearly 125,000.
Modi made the comment about Vajpayee while extolling the virtue of simplicity practiced by the former prime minister.