Six Janata Parivar parties Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party, RJD, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) merged togetger ahead of Bihar Assembly elections.
Stating that the new alliance would have no impact on the Bihar assembly elections, BJP today trashed the merger talks of Janata Parivar parties even as it put chief minister Nitish Kumar in dock for "meeting leaders convicted for scams". "Whatever merger or alliance of Janata Parivar parties happen, it will not be able to stop the rolling of BJP chariot in Bihar. People will themselves ask and decide whether prime minister Narendra Modi is bad and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad is good," said senior BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.
Sushil Modi was speaking here on the occasion of former JD(U) leader and MLC Devesh Chandra Thakur joining the saffron party. Slamming Kumar over "deteriorating law and order", the BJP leader said how the chief minister could shake hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad under whose 15 years regime "people (of the state) outside used to feel ashamed to identify themselves as Biharis".
"Those 15 years were a time when kidnapping surfaced as an industry, massacres happened in central Bihar and crime was at its extreme. I want to ask Kumar how he could shake hands with the same Prasad by violating the three-fourth majority given to BJP and JD (U) by the public," he added. "Kumar has been meeting leaders convicted for scams.
He met former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in jail. Even Prasad is a convicted person and is out on bail. He could go back to jail anytime. I want to ask whether he will run the government with these kind of people," Modi said.
Speaking on the occasion, leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Nand Kishore Yadav pooh-poohed the merger claims of the six Janata Parivar parties Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party, RJD, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP).
"If Kumar and Prasad were as strong as they used to claim, what was the need to merge. They all are afraid of BJP," Yadav said.
Yadav also played audio-clips of portions of speeches given by Kumar and Prasad against each other during the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Poking fun at the merger discussions of Janata Parivar parties, Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav said, "it would not be a merger of 'janata' (public), but just of 'parivar' (families)". "The merger will have no affect on BJP as the public has seen the reality of these parties. These political families are coming together to save their existence," Ram Kripal added.
The union minister also criticised Kumar for saying that Bihar would suffer financial loss due to the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. "The Bihar chief minister is misleading the public by saying that Bihar will suffer. In fact, he should tell why he has not been able to spend the money which the state gets every year from the Centre," he said.
Several workers of various parties in the north Bihar region also joined the BJP on the occasion.
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