JOIN USThe acrimony between the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the BJP, which recently parted ways in Bihar, got deeper on Monday with former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi vowing to expose the double standard of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
A soft-spoken Modi, who had refrained from attacking Kumar directly until now, said in a scathing remark: “Unke dohre charitra ko expose karenge (We will expose his double standard).” Modi was on very good terms with Kumar.
He had never uttered a single word against Kumar in several years. As the man who stands to be the biggest loser in this game of one-upmanship, Modi’s angst was quite palpable. He not only lost the post of the deputy chief ministership, but also stripped of the finance, forest & environment and commercial taxes departments.
After he ceased to be Bihar’s finance minister, Modi had to relinquish the post of the chairman of an empowered committee of state finance ministers on GST . Even though the BJP, with 91 MLAs, will be the second largest party in the Assembly and sit on the other side of the Treasury benches, Modi will not enjoy the perks and status of a Cabinet minister which goes with a Leader of the Opposition. This is because he is not a member of the Assembly. Modi, like Kumar, contested and won the Council polls last year.
Notwithstanding the BJP barb, Kumar on Monday said if Modi and his team turned up for the meet on Saturday and Sunday, there was a possibility of averting the split.