BJP has not kept its word: Nitish Kumar

June 21, 2013 14:52

Dismissing charges of being an opportunist and of betraying the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said JD-U quit NDA as the saffron party did not keep its word about putting on hold contentious issues and not projecting leaders who cannot expand the coalition.

"We did not betray the BJP. Charges that I am an opportunist are baseless. We joined NDA only after assurance that contentious issues like Ram temple, non-imposition of Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code will be put on hold," Kumar said in an interview to CNN-IBN.

Kumar maintained that JD-U had made it clear to BJP that it should not project leaders "who cannot expand the alliance".

"In Bihar we had asked BJP to keep external factors out," he added.

Without naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whose appointment as head of BJP's Election Campaign Committee had triggered JD-U's move to walk out of the NDA, Kumar said the "atmospherics" created around elevation raises several questions.

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