Patna:
3 phases of polling over, 3 to go and clearly no one in Bihar is pulling the punches. While the Congress and the Lalu-led RJD-LJP are trying to bust Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's development plank, Nitish is lambasting the centre for 'ill-treating' Bihar.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today lashed out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of doing "politics of opportunism" by tying up with BJP.
"Nitish Kumar is involved in politics of opportunism by joining hands with communal forces," she said questioning the chief minister's secular credentials. Addressing election rallies in Bhagalpur and Begusarai, the Congress chief said Nitish is not what he appears to be in public and used a Hindi idiom 'Haathi ke daant khane ke aur or dikhane ke aur' to puncture the development plank being touted by the NDA government in the state.
"Nothing has been done in health and education, electricity and drinking water in the past five years. The Centre has provided resources for these sectors. But, unfortunately the state government failed to utilise them for the benefit of the common people," she said adding, "the fact is that the Centre has fully cooperated with the state, but the state government has
failed to make proper use of the Central funds."
Not to be left behind, the RJD today said Nitish Kumar must prove his secular credentials by speaking out against it, as names of some RSS leaders had figured in the Ajmer blast
chargesheet.
"If you (Kumar) fail to muster courage to condemn 'saffron terror', you must renounce your secular credentials forever and stop bragging about dissociation with top BJP leaders during campaigning for the ongoing Assembly polls," RJD general secretary Shakeel Ahmed Khan said.
Khan also referred to JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav's reported slip of tongue describing the chief minister as a "faltu" (useless) leader, saying a "correct assessment" of Kumar had been made.
But the Bihar Chief Minister, in a joint rally with BJP's Sushma Swaraj launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the Congress-led government at the centre.
"For five years, I invited Manmohan Singh to come to Bihar, but he never came. Now that he's come, all that he is doing is to misguide people," Nitish Kumar said.
The Bihar Chief Minister also launched a veiled attack on Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi saying,"All the leaders come from Delhi, as if they are bombing enemy territory."
"The Congress talks about corruption, then let them answer in whose tenure the 2G spectrum scam happened? Who is responsible for the Commonwealth Games mess? The Congress party promotes corruption in the country," Nitish KUmar said.
42 constituencies vote in the 4th phase of polling in the state on November 1.
(With PTI Inputs)