'Be ready for Nitish Kumar's dhokha number two': Upendra Kushwaha warns BJP

Patna: Former BJP ally and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha Sunday cautioned the saffron party that Nitish Kumar will “betray” it and it should be ready for “Dhokha number 2” from the JD(U) president

“I want to tell BJP people that Nitish Kumar has been known for disrespecting the people’s mandate. Betraying people’s mandate and alliance partners are his old habits…BJP people should be ready to witness ‘Dhokha number 2’,” Kushwaha told reporters here.

“Aisa koi saga nahi jisko Nitish ne thaga nahi (There is nobody who has not been cheated by Nitish),” he said. This idiom will be translated into action here soon and hence the BJP should remain “cautious”, he said.

Kushwaha was talking to reporters here after a meeting of his party to discuss the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls. Kumar had snapped ties with the BJP in June 2013 after Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister, was made the saffron party’s campaign committee chairman for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar later joined hands with the RJD and Congress to form Grand Alliance in Bihar which won the last state elections. However, in July 2017 Kumar brought down the Grand Alliance government as he pulled out of the grouping. But within hours, he joined hands with the BJP and became chief minister again. Kushwaha said Kumar remarks that the JD(U) would not join the Modi cabinet reminded him of ‘sour grapes’.

Asked as to why he thought his party and the Mahagathbandhan were routed in the Lok Sabha polls, the RLSP chief claimed that the BJP’s top leadership “misled the people of the country as part of their conspiracy to deflect attention from actual issues” and people voted on non-issues.

“We have learnt a lesson and will be cautious and aware of their (BJP’s) conspiracy in elections.” Replying to another query, he said that the RJD-Congress-RLSP-HAM Grand Alliance in Bihar is united and will remain so in future.

Asked if he though Tejashwi Yadav was responsible for Grand Alliance’s defeat in Bihar, Kushwaha said one person cannot be held responsible.

The former Union minister termed the Bihar CM’s decision to fill 32,000 posts of teachers in the state’s secondary and higher secondary schools as an “eye-wash”.

The decision would not bring quality education in state-run schools, he said. Kumar should alter the selection procedure and appoint quality teachers through examination held either by Bihar Public Service Commission or any other specialised body, he said.

Kushwaha, however, extended his support to Kumar for getting special category status accorded to Bihar. If the state government forms a delegation of political parties or chalks out any programme, the RLSP would extend it support for the cause, he added.