JOIN USRJDs predisposition towards anarchy drove Nitish Kumar away: J P Nadda
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is "predisposed towards anarchy" and the realisation had led Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to snap ties with the party and return to the NDA, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda asserted on Saturday.
Nadda, formerly the Union Health Minister, also alleged that the state had remained deprived of many medical facilities during the period the RJD shared power with Kumar on account of the "indolence" of Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of party supremo Lalu Prasad, who then held the health portfolio in Bihar.
"The RJD is predisposed towards anarchy and lawlessness. And they remain unrepentant. It is the very reason why Nitish Kumar had to dump them and return to the BJP after which the state resumed its march towards progress", the BJP chief told an election rally in Lakhisarai district.
Kumar, the JD(U) president, had resigned in July 2017 after his then-deputy and Prasad's younger son Tejashwi Yadav's name cropped up in a money laundering case and the RJD stubbornly refused to heed demands for the resignation of the 27 years old.
The JD(U) chief received an unconditional offer of support from the BJP, his old ally which was dumped by him in 2013, and a new government was installed the very next day with Kumar as the Chief Minister and Tejashwi Yadav's predecessor Sushil Kumar Modi as the Deputy CM.
"I remember while I was handling health at the Centre, I would be frustrated over getting no response from the state regarding proposals for setting up of new hospitals, medical research institutes etc", said Nadda, who held the portfolio until May 2019, when he took up the top party post.
"Tej Pratap Yadav seemed to be riding a horse which he never wanted to dismount from. Whenever PM Modi used to ask me, what was the progress in Bihar, I would wring my hands in frustration and tell him there is nobody to take care of administrative matters", he alleged.
The BJP joined the government in the state (in 2017) and the party leader Mangal Pandey replaced Tej Pratap. And things began to look up dramatically, he said, adding many medical colleges and medical institutes have come up since then and the state which had an AIIMS at Patna, is all set to have another facility in Darbhanga.
Earlier, addressing a rally in Bihar Sharif, the district headquarters of Nalanda, to which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, Nadda said "every vote, be it for the BJP or any of our allies JD(U), HAM and VIP counts.
The people of the state voted for us decisively in Lok Sabha and the NDA won a huge majority. "The BJP on its own crossed the 300-mark and were able to fulfil our promises".
The BJP president also lambasted the Congress-led opposition in the country for showing "disrespect to the popular sentiment" by opposing scrapping of Article 370, making triple talaq a punishable offence and construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya.