Annual reports set off season of attacks

The JD(U) leaders are hitting back at their former ally, the BJP, for dubbing chief minister Nitish Kumar “incompetent and non-performing” since June in its report card. Sanjay Jha, a confidant of the chief minister, declared the BJP leaders were responsible for the poor shape of the ministries they headed till the 17-year-old alliance broke. he JD(U) leader named health and urban development as the departments that went off track when Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Prem Kumar, respectively, were at the helm of affairs. “Jha’s statement was natural after BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi declared that Nitish Kumar may find many replacements for the dropped BJP leaders, but he would not find ministers like the BJP’s,” said a seasoned politician. He asserted that both parties should now expose the shortcomings of the ministries at the time the NDA was intact.

Ticket price

RJD MLC Nawal Kishore Yadav who is facing the heat for illegal liquor trade in Patna is crying out political vendetta. Once a staunch follower of Lalu Prasad, Yadav has been involved in the hospitality business and illegal liquor trade for some time. In the past couple of years, he turned a critic of the RJD chief. “The police did not disturb Yadav in his illegal liquor trade despite the fact that he ran it from near the secretariat. But once he began to praise the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, the knives came out,” said a RJD leader. According to political grapevine, Nawal is an aspirant for the BJP’s ticket from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat. “If he wants to contest on a BJP ticket he has to pay the price,” said a JD(U) leader.

Campaign stop

BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav and JD(U) minister Shyam Rajak have one thing in common. Both of them have headed to Delhi to campaign for the Assembly polls. In view of the large population of Bihari migrants in Delhi, leaders from the state are in great demand. “Apart from the prominent faces, there are other leaders who use the occasion to visit their relatives in Delhi at the cost of their party. They give reports to their parties on the list of places they have been campaigning at, but are actually staying at the home of their relatives,” said a senior BJP leader.

Search for truth

The biography of former MP Pappu Yadav in which he has alleged at horse trading to save the Vajpayee government appears to have upset party leaders. “From a criminal-turned-politician, the former MP is giving sermons on politics,” retorted a BJP MLA. The party pointed out that the CBI had challenged Pappu Yadav’s acquittal in connection with CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar’s murder in the Supreme Court. “Pappu may get another jail term and then he can rewrite his biography. This time, the truth,” he added.