Patna, April 15: If anybody is happy at the JD(U)-BJP’s impending split, it’s RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

A day after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hinted that Narendra Modi was not acceptable as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, Lalu intensified his attack on Nitish Kumar’s secular credentials. “Nitish is only repeating what he has been told to say by a section of RSS leaders because there is a fight for leadership among the fundamentalist forces. Now, he says he is giving the BJP eight months to decide its prime ministerial candidate. Is he the Supreme Court?” Lalu asked reporters on Monday.

“When Godhra happened, Nitish was railway minister. He did nothing. When I became railway minister, I ordered a probe. But, by then Narendra Modi had got away by instituting a commission. How can Nitish Kumar hail L.K. Advani? Advani demolished the Babri Masjid,” he said.

Insisting that the countdown for Nitish’s downfall had begun, Lalu stressed that he, as Bihar CM, had got Advani arrested when he was on his rath yatra to Ayodhya. “Nitish, on the other hand, flagged off Advani’s yatra (2011) from Sitab diara,” he said.

“For some time now Nitish has been making inroads into Lalu’s vote base, the Muslims. Now that Nitish is parting ways with the BJP over secularism and Modi, Lalu wants to remind Muslims that he was their original champion and make them doubt Nitish’s secular credentials,” a former RJD MP said. Also, Lalu’s original ‘Muslim-Yadav’ combination was key to his party’s return, the MP said. The RJD’s full war cry is expected on May 15 when he holds his Parivartan Rally at Gandhi Maidan.