Nitish accuses Modi of promoting horsetrading

Attack and counter attacks over Bihar crisis continued in the national capital also on Thursday. Before leaving for Patna, JD-U leader Nitish Kumar accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party of trying to script the decision of the Bihar governor.

He alleged that the decision of Governor Keshri Nath Tripahti to ask Jitan Ram Manjhi to undergo floor test on February 20 has been “scripted” in Delhi.

The BJP refuted the allegation and said that Kumar was in a hurry to become chief minister of the state. The party maintained that it was internal matter of the JD-U and the BJP has no role to play.

The former chief minister led his MLAs to Bihar after parading them before the President on Wednesday evening. Tracing the current political developments to the meeting of Jitan Ram Manjhi with the prime minister, he said that the script for Bihar was written after Manjhi met the prime minister on February 8. The licence of horse-trading was issued thereafter, he alleged.

 “First a delay in taking decision and then giving him more time only reveals that it is being done as per the script written in Delhi. It has been done to give adequate time to encourage horse-trading. This has been decided at the highest level,” Kumar said.  “It started after Manjhi met the prime minister. The governor was earlier convinced for an early floor test. But things changed after Manjhi’s meeting with the prime minister. He (the governor) was pressured,” he said.

“All kinds of allurement including money are being made to MLAs. They are being offered ministerial chairs and even BJP tickets,” he alleged.

In a point wise rebuttal of allegations made by the former CM, Union minister from Bihar Ravi Shanakar Prasad told reporters that Nitish has levelled "baseless" and "shameful" allegations" on the BJP and we "condemn" and "reject" his statement.

 “Nitish ji was running the government in Bihar through Jitan ji and when Jitan ji removed people close to Nitish ji, he got worried. We want to ask, when did he gain people’s confidence again, that he has become so eager to be the chief minister,” Prasad stated.