PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday made fun of his former deputy and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi’s prediction that the newly formed grand alliance government would fall early.
When asked that Sushil Modi has been claiming (before media) that the new government would fall early, Nitish first laughed and told reporters, "Please ask Sushil Ji to ensure early fall of this government so that he could get a respectable position either in his party or in the Union government."
To this, the state’s finance and parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who was accompanying the CM, also laughed a lot. Nitish was responding to a media query at Khwajepur village near Gopalganj where he had gone to join in the ‘Shradh’ rituals of former cooperative minister and BJP leader late Subhash Singh.
Terming Sushil Modi as a ‘Bechare’, Nitish further said he must speak against the state government daily.
"If he speaks daily against me or the state government, the people at the Centre will be happy over his action. If the people at the Centre become happy with Sushil Ji, it will be a matter of happiness for me. So, please ask him (Sushil) to speak something against the state government daily," Nitish told reporters.
Sushil Modi, who is considered to have been side-lined by his party, was Nitish’s deputy in previous three coalition governments of JDU-BJP and both the leaders always displayed very cordial relations while in the government.
Referring to the last NDA government in Bihar, Nitish also said when the coalition government was formed after the 2020 assembly polls in Bihar, he (Sushil) was not given any position (by his party BJP). “I had a ‘taqleef’ (pain) because of the non-inclusion of Sushil in the government. But now, he is speaking against us. Let him speak against me so that he may get a position,”
Earlier while speaking in favour of his government’s trust vote in the assembly on August 24, Nitish said he was disappointed after his old friends in the BJP like Sushil Modi, Prem Kumar, Nand Kishore Yadav and Vinod Narayan Jha were not given ministerial berths in the coalition government formed after the 2020 assembly results.
Earlier in the day, Sushil Modi attacked the Nitish-led Grand Alliance government for inducting ‘tainted’ RJD leader Surendra Yadav in the cabinet. “Nitish Kumar has demoralised Bihar by inducting a person like Surendra Yadav, against whom several criminal cases are registered, in his cabinet,” Sushil Modi said on Sunday.
