Nitish Kumar 'medically alive' but 'brain dead', alleges RJD MP Sudhakar Singh

Sudhakar took a jibe at the Bihar chief minister, who has been in the news recently for his odd behaviour, sparking a debate about his health situation.

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is only "medically alive" but "brain dead", and imposing him on the people of Bihar would be an insult to them, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Sudhakar Singh said, expressing confidence over the Mahagathbandhan getting a two-thirds majority in the upcoming Bihar polls.

In an interview with PTI, Singh also said the Supreme Court's direction to include Aadhaar as one of the documents for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a major victory for the marginalised sections, who faced the threat of being out of the voter list amid the exercise which seeks voters to submit documents establishing their citizenship of India.

Asked about the upcoming polls in Bihar, Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar, said Kumar has "mentally retired".

"People are going to vote for the next generation leadership of Tejashwi Yadav. Mahagathbandhan will come in the government with a two-thirds majority," Singh said.

"If you look at the Mahagathbandhan, we were only 12,000 votes behind the NDA even in the 2020 Bihar polls despite all the manipulations (by them). We were defeated by 12 votes in one seat, and in some other seats, we were defeated by 250 or 500 votes.

"But in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, we improved our performance. Earlier, the RJD had one MP from Bihar; now we have 10 MPs," he said.

He took a jibe at the Bihar chief minister, who has been in the news recently for his odd behaviour, sparking a debate about his health situation.

"The chief minister of Bihar is mentally retired; the people of Bihar are familiar with this," Singh said.

He suggested that the NDA should appoint a panel of doctors to examine Kumar.

"Nitish Kumar is medically and biologically alive, but mentally he is dead. He is a brain-dead person. Are the 13 crore people of Bihar going to be under the leadership of a brain-dead chief minister? Those who say that want to see Bihar as a colony," he said.

"If the NDA has any morality, they should form a three-member panel of AIIMS doctors, get a health check-up done and release the report," he said.

Kumar has been in the news recently for his antics. At a ceremony in Patna in May this year, he accepted a potted plant from a senior IAS officer and then placed it on the officer's head. In another incident in March, he drew criticism for inappropriate behaviour during the national anthem.

"Staying in power is not a bad thing, but imposing a brain-dead CM on 13 crore people of Bihar to remain in power is an insult to the people, and you are seeing Bihar as a colony," the RJD MP added.

Talking about the Special Intensive Revision of the voter list being carried out in Bihar, Singh welcomed the Supreme Court's intervention, asking the Election Commission (EC) to accept Aadhaar as one of the documents listed for the exercise, and called it a major victory.

"After a long struggle, this is a big victory for the marginalised sections, like those who are uneducated or are below the poverty line. The Aadhaar card is used to get a passport, driving licence and bank account. The EC was ready to accept those documents, but the main document, the Aadhaar card, they had refused to accept," Singh said.

He also took a dig at the poll panel for not consulting political parties and also ignoring the suggestions given by the top court.

"If we look at the initial period of the SIR, the Election Commission was not ready to talk to any of the stakeholders. They were neither listening to political parties nor were they ready to accept any suggestion of the Honourable Supreme Court," he said.

"The SC had suggested that you should display the whole process of SIR on a dashboard. But the EC said in front of the Supreme Court that it is not obliged to show any document in the public domain or to the Supreme Court," he said.

"Approximately 25% of the population is illiterate and landless; this is a relief for them," Singh remarked.

Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks about "infiltrators" being there in the country, Singh said, "It is very surprising that a person sitting at the highest position in the constitutional system is involved in a political accusation. It was expected that he would deport the infiltrators, but he is making accusations from the Red For. This means he is accepting his failure." "What does his statement from Red Fort mean? It means he is a failed prime minister," he said.

Sources in the EC had earlier claimed that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have found a large number of people from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in the electoral rolls of Bihar.

Singh slammed the poll panel for not giving machine-readable voter list to parties, and questioned the claim that changes can be made by parties if the data is in an editable format.

"Even if we make any changes in our analysis, the Election Commission has the original document. They can match the changes that we have made," he said.

"The EC statements sound like they feel 99.99% people in this country are fools, and the only educated people are sitting in the Election Commission," he said.

Singh said a second phase of the Vote Adhikar Yatra would be started in Bihar very soon to cover the remaining districts which were not covered in the first phase.

"In the first phase of the Yatra on SIR, we went to 18 districts. Another yatra would be taken out in the remaining 10 districts under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav. There is not much time left for the elections. We are preparing on a large scale," he said.