Rahul didn't take stand against corruption when it mattered: Nitish

January 15, 2019 23:42

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday attributed his sudden exit from the opposition alliance to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's "inability" to take a stand on corruption charges against his former deputy and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Kumar, who also heads the Janata Dal-United, claimed that his party was instrumental in the Congress getting 40 seats to contest in the 2015 assembly polls.

The chief minister said he had felt let down by Gandhi, then the party's vice-president, when he "did not come up with even a statement that could have made me have second thoughts (about leaving the alliance)".

Kumar had quit the alliance, comprising the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress, in July 2017 after the CBI lodged an FIR against Yadav on corruption charges and the following strife between him and the RJD.

"It has been always my line that there will be no compromise on crime, corruption and communalism. Their (RJD's) style of functioning was such that it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to work. There was interference at all levels. Their people would telephone police stations with their own decrees," Kumar claimed.

He was speaking at an event here organised by a private news channel.

"Rahul Gandhi had famously tore that ordinance. It was the JD-U which insisted that it (Congress) be given 40 seats and they ended up winning 28. The RJD, despite its old association with it, was never ready to give it that much weightage," Kumar said.

In 2003, Gandhi had torn an ordinance brought by the Manmohan Singh government with a provision to protect convicted politicians against disqualification.

Stating that he resigned as he had no other choice, Kumar said his resignation was immediately followed by an offer of support from the BJP. "So I took the decision (to join hands with the BJP) in the interests of Bihar," he said.

"We have our differences on issues like Ayodhya, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code since the 1990s. My association with the BJP predates the NDA's formation in 1999. But we have always worked amicably. Even now, we are getting full cooperation from the Narendra Modi government," he said. -- PTI

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