Shatrughan Sinha in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, June 13: A function to felicitate NDA MPs and ministers ended with a resolve to work for a Nitish-Lalu-mukt Bihar (Bihar free of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad).

Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, other party leaders like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Dharmendra Pradhan trained their guns at Nitish Kumar, the Jitan Ram Manjhi government and the Congress-RJD combine and made it known that after a Congress-mukt Bharat (India rid of the Congress) it was time to work for the 2015 Assembly elections and ensure that the state is rid of Nitish and Lalu.

Barring Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and food minister Ram Vilas Paswan who had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, most NDA MPs and ministers from Bihar attended the felicitation ceremony.

A huge poster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi looming large in the background, the leaders said with their victory in the parliamentary elections, half their goal had been achieved. The goal now was for the NDA to form a government in Bihar.

Sushil Kumar Modi said: “The Bihar government is least concerned about the state’s development and after breaking up with the BJP and more so, after its recent defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, it is more interested in politics.”

Modi said at present Bihar has three chief ministers, Jitan Ram Manjhi (constitutional chief minister), Nitish Kumar (real chief minister), while Lalan Singh, who has been newly appointed as the road construction minister was the “super CM” because he took calls on the transfers.

Keeping the enthusiasm of workers alive after the NDA’s victory in 31 parliamentary constituencies, which accounts for NDA leading in 171 Assembly constituencies, state BJP unit president Mangal Pandey raised the slogan “Delhi ki sarkar hamari hai, abb Bihar ki bari hain (In Delhi it is our government, now it is the turn of Bihar)”.

He said: “Since the JDU is least concerned about development, the NDA has constituted a core group of MPs from Bihar who will place the development agenda of Bihar with the ministers concerned.”

The NDA core group of MPs comprises Rajiv Pratap Rudy (power), Ram Kripal Yadav (education), Giriraj Singh (animal husbandry) and others will work in coordination with the department ministers concerned so that Bihar gets maximum benefits.