BJP's 'Iron Man' Advani has been left to rust: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday hit out at his erstwhile ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for anointing someone as the prime ministerial candidate who can’t unite the Opposition to take the Congress-led UPA head-on.

The JD-U strongman also expressed his unhappiness over the manner in which BJP patriarch LK Advani had been betrayed by those whom he groomed over the years.

“Our apprehension about the BJP has been proved correct. The party has eventually set its divisive agenda at a time when there was an urgent need to unite the Opposition and fight against the Centre. But today, I stand vindicated,” said Nitish arguing that he had foreseen this long back.

Nitish took a jibe at the saffron party for showing utter disregard to Advani. “The BJP leaders are looking for loha (iron) for the tallest statue to be erected (in Gujarat), but they are giving shabby treatment to their own lauh-purush (iron-man), and have left him to rust,” he said.

Without naming his former deputy, Sushil Modi, he said, “Some people, who, while running the government with us, never opposed special status to Bihar. But now they have struck a discordant note.”