War of Words between JDU and BJP Leaders Intensifies

Patna: Oct. 13, 2008

A day after the political grandstanding by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and PHED Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey who implored the NDA government to accept his resignation as 'he could not just sit tight and be humiliated or allow women and children to be insulted', the rift between the BJP leader Bhola Singh and Janata Dal (U) legislator Ram Pravesh Rai further widened with both firing fresh salvo at each other on Monday.

Rai, once again indulging in more theatrics, dared Urban Development Minister Bhola Singh to come to Chhapra where the latter is scheduled to be on Wednesday.

"Bhola Singh will not be allowed in Chhapra as long as I live and the only way he can enter Chhapra is by walking over my dead body," the JD-U legislator said.

The BJP leader, not to be intimidated by Rai's threats, said he was part of the Bihar government and any attempt to prevent his entry into the city would be a 'direct assault on the government and an attack on democracy'.

"Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would be held responsible if Rai's goons try to stop me from visiting Chhapra," the Urban Development Minister said.

Janata Dal (U) state president Rajiv Ranjan Singh a.k.a. Lallan Singh, however, tried to distance his party from Rai's rather belligerent stance saying there was no threat on the BJP-JDU coalition in Bihar and the feud between Rai and Singh was personal in nature.

"This is their personal problem and they would have to settle it outside the coalition setup," Lallan Singh said.

Sources in both parties, however, said that the rift between Singh and Rai was embarrassing to both JD-U and the BJP and it was just a matter of time before one of them is shown the door for good.

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