Lalu Prasad charges Nitish Kumar with trying to divide secular votes

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of trying to divide secular votes by opposing his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi's elevation as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

"Kumar is trying to woo the Muslims and divide secular voters by opposing Modi's elevation as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate," Prasad said in a statement after flagging off the Akliyat Bedari Muhim Rath (minorities awareness campaign rath) to several districts.

Kumar, however, will not succeed in his plan to divide the secular votes as the minorities understood his designs, Prasad said.

The Muslims have not forgotten the fact that Kumar had kept mum when Gujarat was burning in 2002 riots nor did he take a stand when the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted to sack Modi for not discharging his duties, a move that was stalled by the then deputy prime minister L K Advani, the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo said.

Prasad further alleged that Kumar in subsequent years as the Chief Minister gave space to the Sangh Parivar to spread its "tentacles" and allowed the RSS to hold camps at the Gandhi Maidan.

Apparently seeking to project himself as a more secular person than Nitish Kumar, Prasad said that he had stopped Advani's Rath Yatra in 1990 while the incumbent Chief Minister had flagged off another yatra of the veteran BJP leader in 2011 from Bihar.

Prasad charged Kumar with "changing colours frequently like a chameleon".

Claiming that the JD(U) and BJP will be routed in Bihar in the next general elections, the RJD supremo said that Kumar was no more a factor in Bihar politics.