Sonia launches tirade against Nitish

CM criticised for not utilising Central fund

“The Bihar government has no time to utilise the fund which has been allotted to the state,” said Sonia at an impressive rally in Muslim-dominated Kishanganj on Monday.

Defending the prime minister, who was at the receiving end of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and Nitish Kumar, Sonia posed four questions to the JD (U) strongman: 1) What steps have been taken to improve power in Kishanganj?
2) Has any industry been set up?
3) What steps have been taken to weed out unemployment?
4) How many new schools and hospitals have been set up?

Lashing out at the Bihar chief minister, Sonia said: “One person claims to be secular but runs his government in the company of communal elements. By not inviting a BJP leader (Narendra Modi) to campaign in Bihar, you can’t proclaim yourself to be secular.”
Amid thunderous applause, she continued her tirade and said the fund allocated by the Ministry of Minority Welfare too had remained unutilised.

“The Bihar government doesn’t have the time to spend the fund allotted for minorities’ welfare, while the man who rules Bihar always cries hoarse,” she went on to slam Nitish.
At another rally in Motihari, she blasted her former alliance partners Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan. Mincing no words in berating the two regional leaders, she assailed their caste-based politics.

“All those who play politics in the name of caste and religion have been ruling Bihar for the last two decades. Hence there has been no development. It’s time you packed their bags,” she said.

Sonia’s attack on Lalu assumes significance as senior Rashtriya Janata Dal MP and former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh created a storm in political circles on Monday when he said: “The RJD will eventually tie-up with the Congress post-poll, as both the parties are secular in nature. Even Laluji in private admits it was a big mistake to not ally with the Congress earlier.”

But the Congress, later in the evening, vehemently denied any possibility of joining hands with the RJD.

“If we get a majority, we will form the government on our own. If not, we will prefer to sit in the Opposition rather than joining hands with persons like Lalu,” Prem Chandra Mishra, chief spokesperson of the Bihar Congress, told Deccan Herald.