Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said the BJP should have let its senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi occupy the top post after the 2020 Assembly polls instead of insisting that he run for another term in office.
The JD(U) leader, who snapped ties with the BJP on Tuesday and joined hands with the Opposition RJD to return as the CM, made the remark as a riposte to allegations levelled against himself by Modi, his former deputy.
"He has been a dear friend. Why was he not made the CM? Had he been appointed to the post, things would not have reached this stage," he told reporters in reply to questions about Modi.
Kumar has been maintaining that he was in no mood to continue after the elections in which his party fared badly but relented upon the insistence of leaders of the BJP.
The alliance was called off in keeping with a "unanimous sentiment" expressed by JD(U) leaders who accused the BJP of a "conspiracy" to obliterate the party.
Modi was replaced as the deputy CM by two less-known BJP leaders after the polls.
After Modi was sent to Rajya Sabha more than a year ago, there were speculations that he would be considered for a cabinet berth at the Centre.
Earlier taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar had said, "He won in 2014, but should now worry about 2024."
Meanwhile, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Wednesday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was not comfortable in the alliance with the BJP and that is why he moved from one political formation to the other.
Kishor, once considered a confidant of Kumar, said the impact of the political developments in Bihar will remain limited to the state at present.
They were unlikely to have an impact on the national level in the short-run, he said.
JD(U) leader Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time on Wednesday, a day after snapping ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joining hands with the RJD to form a 'Mahagathbandhan' government.
"From 2017 to 2022, he (Kumar) was with the BJP. But I never found him comfortable because of many reasons. He may have thought that let us experiment with Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance)," Kishor told television news channels in Patna.
Kishor, who had joined the JD(U) and was later removed from the party, said Kumar no longer enjoyed the "teflon-coated" image.
"If you look at the hard facts, there is a huge difference. In 2010, he had 117 MLAs, in 2015 he had 72 and now 43. Many political commentators say his image is teflon-coated. The numbers don't show that," he told NDTV.
Kishor said the new formation in Bihar will emerge as a formidable force if they succeed in delivering what the people expect of them.
"If they are not able to govern well, it could turn out to be a disadvantage to them in 2024," Kishor said.
He said it will have to be seen whether the new government performs or not as the RJD and the JD(U) have contradicting stances on a number of issues, including corruption.
On reports that Kumar harboured prime ministerial ambitions, Kishor insisted the developments were strictly Bihar-centric .
He said Bihar has seen six experiments in government formation since 2012-13 and Nitish Kumar has been a constant as the chief minister.
"Since 2012-13, this is the sixth experiment as far as government formation is concerned. In all these six experiments, Nitish Kumar has remained the chief minister. And there has been no change in the situation in Bihar. I hope that the new government will do something good," Kishor told Republic TV.
He said Kumar had taken a new experiment of the grand alliance to the people in 2015 which had got the mandate, however there was no such thing in the present case.
"The mandate was with the NDA, but now a new formation is in place. I am not saying it is an opportunistic formation, just stating facts. This formation has seven parties and no mandate. There is a huge difference between the two," Kishor told NDTV.
