Even as the LJP chief Chirag Paswan continues to claim that he is the Hanuman of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who lives in his heart, Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday directly blamed him for the split in the NDA in Bihar. Speaking for the first time on this controversy to News18 the home minister said that the LJP was offered a reasonable number of seats and he personally tried to convince Chirag a number of times but the latter remained unconvinced and walked out of the Alliance.
Shah made it amply clear that Nitish Kumar would continue to serve as the chief minister even if the Janata Dal United wins less number of seats than the BJP. He said that the BJP would fight the election treating LJP as its opponent. Regarding the post-poll scenario Amit Shah said that the issue of the LJP re-joining the NDA may come up after the election results.
Holding Chirag responsible for the break-up of NDA Amit Shah charged the LJP leader with making one-sided comments, obviously against Nitish Kumar. Incidentally, Amit Shah’s statement came a day after Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and Bihar in-charge of the BJP Bhupendra Yadav accused Chirag of creating confusion among the electorate. It seems that the BJP is gradually tightening the noose around the LJP.
It is to be seen how Narendra Modi himself responds when he launches election campaign from Rohtas district on October 23. It is in this district that three LJP candidates are posing real threats to the NDA. Two of the top former BJP functionaries Rajendra Singh and Rameshwar Chaurasia are contesting as LJP candidates, but raising pro-Narendra Modi slogans in their campaign. On the other hand Chirag said that it does not matter much if the LJP is not allowed to use PM’s photo on the posters as the latter lives in his heart.
