Who says such rubbish? Nitish slams Yogi Adityanath on CAA, throwing out infiltrators remarks

Nitish's remarks have once again shown an ideological rift in the ruling coalition

As campaigning for the third and last phase of elections came to an end on Thursday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar rebuked his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath for threatening the minorities of Bihar that he (Yogi) will “throw out the infiltrators once the NDA returns to power in the state.”

“Who is spreading all these malicious rumours? ‘Kaun yeh sab faltu baat bol raha hai’? (Who is talking such nonsense)?,” wondered Nitish while campaigning for his party candidates in Araria and Kishanganj in Seemanchal region. He, however, did not name Yogi but Nitish’s rebuke was quite obvious as it was the UP Chief Minister, who in North Bihar, had spoken about the contentious issue of CAA and NRC and threatened to “throw out infiltrators.”

“Kisme himmat hai kisi ko bahar nikalne ka? Sabhi Bharat ke log hain. Sab yaheen rahenge. (Who has the audacity to throw out people staying here? All are Indians, and they will continue to stay in this country),” reassured Nitish to the minorities who form large chunk in districts like Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar where they are in the range of 50 to 70 per cent of the population.

The last phase of elections, slated for November 7, is to be held mostly in these minorities-dominated regions where AIMIM is also in the fray.

To dispel any misgivings, Nitish further slammed the BJP leader and asked the gathering not to pay heed to such leaders who remain hell-bent on dividing the society. “Kuch logon ka kaam hee hai mahaul bigadna (Some leaders remain engrossed in vitiating the atmosphere) and, therefore, indulge in malicious campaign,” averred Nitish, without naming Yogi, who has been reportedly trying to polarise the Bihar election.

Nitish, who is contesting the State Assembly election in alliance with the BJP, besides two junior partners HAM and VIP, has been quite guarded in his speeches and rallies and has made every effort to woo the minorities too, who form 17 per cent of the electorate in the State. In fact, to repose confidence among minorities, Nitish has fielded 11 Muslims candidates, nearly 10 per cent of the total JD(U) nominees.

Incidentally, Nitish faced a rough weather ahead of first phase of poll too, when the ‘enemy within’ tried to clip his wings by fielding the BJP rebels as the LJP candidates against all the JD(U) candidates.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated umpteen times that Nitish was the NDA chief ministerial candidate, a large section of the BJP seems to have played the spoilsport. The trend (of damaging Nitish’ prospects) seems to be continuing ahead of the third and final phase of polling on November 7.