Nitish Kumar with Congress candidate Ajit Sharma at the bypoll campaign in Bhagalpur on Wednesday. Picture by Amit Kumar

Change is everywhere — more so in state politics, as evident from the way Nitish Kumar spoke and heaped praise on the Congress at an election rally here on Wednesday.

The former chief minister shared stage with several Congress leaders, including former Union minister C.P. Joshi, to appeal the people to vote for the Congress candidate, Ajit Sharma, in the August 21 bypoll.

Nitish told the crowd at Bagwari, on the outskirts of Bhagalpur, about the “great sacrifices by political ideologues of Bihar’s leaders” like Jayaprakash Narayan, Rajendra Prasad and many others during the freedom struggle.

He challenged the BJP to name any of their previous leaders and present ones, who had made such sacrifices in the freedom movement.

“Ancestors of those who this time captured Delhi did not participate in the freedom movement in the country. So how the leaders of today (BJP leaders) know the value of freedom? They somehow managed to capture the absolute majority with false promises and spread high dose of poison in this country which enabled them to get absolute victory in the Lok Sabha polls. But we have prepared proper medicine for eliminating such poison, which could destroy everything like communal harmony and other issues. The medicine to defuse it is our Maha Gathbandhan (grand alliance),” he added.

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Choudhary, former minister Akhilesh Singh, former Speaker and Congress MLA from Kahalgaon, Sadanand Singh, state food and civil supply minister Shyam Rajak, JDU Rajya Sabha MP Kahkashan Parveen shared the dais for the first time in Bhagalpur.

Nitish, who arrived here more than two and half hours after the meeting was to start via Khagaria on road, said: “I was requesting you all to give my remuneration but you did not give any response to my request. Now you could see the result. You gave the opportunity to such persons who would not hesitate to ruin the country.” He has appealed to the voters “not to repeat such mistake this time”.

Joshi said now the time has come to change the fate of Bihar because the bypoll would leave a huge impact on the Indian politics. He projected the Congress (UPA-I and II) for “helping Bihar with huge funds for welfare and Nitish had utilised those funds in proper development works”.