File photo of Nitish Kumar
Empathising with senior BJP leaders, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Tuesday that L K Advani has been "imprisoned" in Gandhinagar.
"Advaniji wanted to come out but he has been imprisoned in Gandhinagar," Mr Kumar told reporters here.
The Bihar Chief Minister, who broke a 17-year alliance with the BJP, lamented the fate of veteran BJP leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh and Lal Muni Choubey.
"Slogans used to be raised in favour of Joshiji along with that of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani in the '80s... but now he has been banished from Varanasi to Kanpur," he said.
"Jaswant Singh and Lal Muni Choubey have been denied ticket despite winning many parliamentary polls," he added.
In a scathing attack at the BJP over the controversial 'har har Modi' slogan, Mr Kumar said, "Banaras atey hi har har mahadev ke narre se mahadev ko bhaga diya (you have removed the name of Mahadev from the chant of har har mahadev with your arrival at Varanasi)."
He also ridiculed the propagation of the Gujarat model of development.
"People are not tired of praising the Gujarat model of development... but somebody should ask them why tribal there are still a poor lot," he said.
On rival Lalu Prasad, Mr Kumar said Bihar would not like to return to bad days under his party rule.