'Nitish shot himself in the foot by dumping BJP'

BJP president Amit Shah on Friday launched a blistering attack on former chief minister Nitish Kumar and said the JD(U) strongman ruined his political career “because of his inflated ego and ambition”.

“It was the BJP which projected him as a chief ministerial candidate in 2005, thereby giving the people a choice to uproot the RJD-Congress regime. It was the BJP because of which Nitish got a huge mandate in 2010. But an overambitious man, plagued with an inflated ego, shot himself in his foot when he dumped the BJP in 2013, and has now joined hands with Lalu, the epitome of Jungle Raj in Bihar,” said Shah.

Shah, who made his first visit to Bihar after becoming the party chief, was addressing a BJP rally at Veterinary Ground here on Friday. The rally was organised as part of birth anniversary celebration of former chief minister late Karpoori Thakur, a towering leader. “Karpoori ji fought the Congress party tooth and nail throughout his life. It was BJP (then called Jan Sangh), which helped him don the mantle of Bihar chief minister in 70s. Now, his disciples (Lalu, Nitish) have joined hands with the same Congress to keep BJP at arm’s length. Leaders like Nitish and Lalu have thus forfeited the right to celebrate Karpoori’s birth anniversary,” said Shah, dwelling at length how the BJP supported an extremely backward class leader like Narendra Modi and helped him clinch the country’s top executive job.