Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday criticised the Lalu Prasad led-government in the state before 2005, days after the Rashtriya Janata Dal president extended an invite to join hands with his party.
During a review meeting at the Gopalganj collectorate hall, the Bihar chief minister, who has switched sides multiple times, also remarked that he went “here and there by mistake” but that the party would now stay together and develop the country and Bihar on it’s own.
At the event, Nitish Kumar detailed the schemes that had contributed towards the development of the state since it had given his party the mandate on November 24, 2005.
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Nitish Kumar remarked, “Before the year 2005, Bihar ki halat kaafi kharab thi (the condition of Bihar was really bad). People were afraid to come out of their homes after evening. There was no arrangement for treatment in hospitals, the roads were dilapidated, the condition of education was not good, and often there were reports of religious disputes.”
Nitish Kumar’s statement was in criticism of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had been chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997.
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Nitish Kumar added that since then ‘no area of Bihar was untouched by development’ after large scale work in the fields of education, health, road and bridge construction.
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Lalu Prasad Yadav’s invitation
Nitish Kumar’s comments were in response to RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav’s comments that the doors were still open for the Bihar CM to join the ‘Mahagathbandan’ in the state comprising of the Congress, RJD, CPI, CPI(M) and CPIML.
Despite Lalu Prasad Yadav’s comments, the sentiments were not shared by his son Tejasvi Yadav, who downplayed his father’s remarks, saying, “What else would he (Lalu Yadav) say? He was simply addressing your questions.”
Kumar, has in the past, aligned with the RJD twice in 2015 and 2022, before joining hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.