Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said President Droupadi Murmu had been invited to launch the fourth agriculture road map for Bihar.
He also dared the BJP to break his Janata Dal United (JDU), instead of just making statements that it was disintegrating.
The chief minister said the fourth agriculture road map for Bihar was ready and President Droupadi Murmu would launch it.
“The agriculture road map is ready and we have to implement it. We implemented the first such road map from 2008 to 2012. We had invited the President of India to launch the road maps in 2012 and 2017. We have invited the President this time also. We telephoned her. She is in the process of giving the dates. It will be launched on the date she decides,” Nitish said.
The then President Pranab Mukherjee had launched the second agriculture road map for the state in 2012, while then President Ram Nath Kovind had launched the third agriculture road map in November 2017.
Nitish had a hard time understanding questions posed by media persons on the recent remarks by senior Bihar BJP leaders, including its state unit president Samrat Choudhary, leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi, about an imminent split in the JDU.
Deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, standing next to him, came to his rescue and explained the question.
“If they (BJP) want to break it (JDU), ask them to break it. It will be very good. These are useless things without any meaning. But these things are publicised and I have stopped paying attention to them,” Nitish retorted.
Talking to reporters after offering floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi in Patna on his birth anniversary, the chief minister asked them to congratulate the BJP, if the JDU was breaking at all.
“It (BJP) has destroyed all of you and is now scheming to destroy us,” he added.
Former MLC Ranvir Nandan, considered close to Nitish, resigned from the JDU last week. He is expected to join the BJP on October 11.
The political circuit is abuzz with another senior party leader is expected to follow suit.
