The Janata Dal (United) on Monday reacted strongly to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s charge that Nitish Kumar’s NDA return was a pre-planned move and called the grand old party “achhoot”, a Hindi word for untouchable.
Reacting to Kharge’s charge, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said, “If this was pre-planned, then why did we organise the first meeting of (INDIA parties) in Patna? Why did we bring Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav with an ‘achhoot’ (untouchable) party like you (Congress)?”
He further said that West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s decision to propose Mallikarjun Kharge’s name for the PM face of INDIA alliance led to the Bihar CM’s exit.
“This happened after Mamata Banerjee in Delhi proposed Mallikarjun Kharge as INDIA alliance prime ministerial candidate. The Congress party always wanted to grab this (PM) post,” he added.
Tyagi held Congress responsible for the INDIA alliance’s decline and accused the grand old party of insulting regional players.
“While we were working to strengthen the alliance, Congress was busy grabbing the important posts. They were trying to weaken SP, DMK, TMC and other regional parties. Once Rahul Gandhi said that regional parties don’t have an ideology. Due to this, we broke our association with the alliance,” he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Nitish Kumar switched his loyalty to the BJP-led NDA and broke away from the Opposition’s INDIA alliance.
He also resigned from the post of Bihar CM and formed new government with support form the BJP.
Reacting to Kumar’s NDA switch, Kharge had said that such decisions can be taken in a hurry and the move was pre-planned.
“Such decisions can not be taken in a hurry…This shows that it was all pre-planned. To break the INDIA alliance they (BJP-JD(U)) planned all this… He (Nitish Kumar) kept us in the dark, he kept Lalu Yadav in the dark,” the Congress chief told ANI.