BJP hand in glove with Manjhi: Nitish Kumar

Predicting Delhi-like results for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and taking his fight to the national Capital, Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said that the saffron party was hand in glove with Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in engineering horse trading in the state.

The former chief minister said that all the legislators of his party and allies were being offered ministerial berths along with BJP ticket for the state polls to lure them to the Manjhi camp.

He said: "The BJP is hand in glove (with the Manjhi camp) in the horse trading bid in the state. How come its tickets for the Assembly election are being offered along with ministerial berths if it is not involved in trying to draw away party members?" Expressing concern over the delay in Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi arriving at a decision, Nitish said that he was taking all his supporters to Delhi to parade them before President Pranab Mukhejee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

He said: "We have so far received no communication from the Raj Bhawan to form the government even though the JD-U had staked claim to replace its legislature party leader and informed the Governor about it three days ago."

Nitish said that he had paraded the 130 legislators at the Raj Bhawan on Monday. He said: "But, the matter has been kept pending. This is encouraging horse trading. People are watching how environment for purchase of legislators is being created in the state."

Brushing aside Manjhi's demand for secret ballot during the trust vote, Nitish said that there are established rules and norms for legislative business. "It does not run on anybody's whims," he said. Alleging that the BJP is behind all the recent developments in his party, Nitish said that the JD-U would seek the status of main Opposition party in the Assembly if Manjhi is invited for floor test.

Asserting that the Delhi poll results had given a big message to the rest of the country, Nitish said that Delhiites had rejected the BJP overwhelmingly because Narendra Modi had failed to fulfil its promise in the past nine months.

He said: "This is a big referendum of the people against BJP's arrogance in the national Capital. The support in favour of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is not a mere swing. It is as though the pendulum has swung from one side to another. Never before in the history of the country had the mood of people changed in such a short span of time. The results have proved that big boasts do not always work."

The JD-U leader said that people of Bihar living in Delhi had supported AAP and the BJP will get a similar treatment. Nitish had on Monday staked claim to form the government after Manjhi refused to resign and dubbed the meeting convened by party president Sharad Yadav to replace him as "unconstitutional". He claimed that he would prove his majority on the floor of the House whenever the governor asks him to.