Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on January 31 dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim, made on January 30, the second day of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the State. Mr. Gandhi, while addressing a public meeting in Purnia in north Bihar, had claimed that it was under pressure from his party that Mr. Kumar had conducted a caste census in Bihar, which the BJP had never wanted. Mr. Kumar said it was “absurd to talk like this and an attempt to take fake credit”.
The CM also asserted that now he would not go “anywhere from here [the BJP]”. He also took on the Opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on different issues.
“Has he [Rahul Gandhi] forgotten when the caste census happened? I conducted it taking nine political parties together and met the Prime Minister. When I was told indirectly that the Centre cannot do this, I conducted it in the State, but he is taking fake credit, what can I do? Let it be so. But, isase badhkar faltu baat nahi ho sakta (there cannot be anything more absurd that this),” Mr. Kumar told media persons in Patna, when asked about Mr. Gandhi’s remark.
