Nitish Suggests Removal of Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister
Patna: April 25, 2005
The Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar, on Sunday, said that the time has come to get rid of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has become a constant source of embarrassment and a liability for the NDA in spite of the fact that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has benefited from him in the past.
Kumar, during an interview by a news channel, said that what happened in Gujarat after the Godhra tragedy was wrong and the NDA was paying heavy price for it.
He, however, blasted the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for politicizing the latest train tragedy in Gujarat and accused him of trying to shift the focus from the accident to Narendra Modi to cover up for his own failure as the Rail Minister.
"When the Rajdhani Express crashed in Rafiganj during my tenure as the Railway Minister, Lalu was busy inciting the crowd against me. Now he doesn't want to talk about the Sabarmati accident; all he wants to talk about how he was the target of an assassination plan chalked out by Modi," Kumar said.
The JD-U leader also said that he would have nothing to do with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan anymore. "If he had any respect for the sentiments of his MLAs, a government in Bihar could be formed in minutes but he has shown time and again that he was not interested in a government in Bihar by continuing to praise the President's Rule in the state," the former Railway Minister said.
Meanwhile, Paswan, reacting at Nitish's comments, said that the JD-U leader was the real obstacle in the path of the formation of a new government in Bihar. "If he agrees to my demand of severing its ties with the BJP, a government in Bihar will be formed immediately.
Paswan also insisted on his demand of a Muslim Chief Minister in Bihar. "This candidate could be any Muslim leader from any party besides the BJP or the RJD," he said.
"Probably Nitish himself wants to be the Chief Minister of Bihar. That's why he is not agreeing to my demand of a Muslim CM," Paswan said.
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