The National Democratic Alliance on Sunday hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar and his alliance partner, RJD boss Lalu Prasad, for not only forgetting the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan but even the leader (read JP).
On the occasion of Narayan's 113th birth anniversary, the NDA leaders attacked Lalu and Nitish for not visiting the stalwart's house, Mahila Charkha Samiti, at Kadamkuan in Patna, and his native village, Sitab Diara, in Saran on the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border.
Raising the issue, Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupender Yadav said: "Both Lalu and Nitish claim themselves to be disciples of JP but they not even bothered to visit JP's houses in Patna and Sitab Diara on his birth anniversary after joining hands with the Congress."
Sources said Nitish and Lalu were both busy in election campaigning. However, Nitish paid homage to his mentor at the JP roundabout in Patna. From the JDU's side, party state president Bashishtha Narayan Singh visited Mahila Charkha Samiti in the morning.
BJP leaders, including Union home minister Rajnath Singh, party president Amit Shah, Union chemicals and fertilisers minister Ananth Kumar and senior state BJP leaders, including Sushil Kumar Modi, Nandkishore Yadav and others visited the Patna house in the morning. Later, Amit Shah, Ananth Kumar and state BJP leaders visited Sitab Diara, around 80km northwest of Patna. Shah said in While returning from JP's village, Shah said Narayan had fought for the second independence for the country and safeguarded the democracy. Shah added that the BJP could only fulfil JP's dreams.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, Lalu and senior BJP leaders, including Sushil Kumar Modi, Ravi Shankar Prasad and others, entered politics riding the JP Movement wave. JP's name is so big in Bihar politics that both the central and state governments announced several programmes to give facelift to JP's village this year. While the Centre decided to build a national memorial at Sitab Diara to honour Narayan, the state would build Jayaprakash Narayan Memorial Museum at his birthplace.
