New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday ruled out any possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janta Party and said he would ‘rather die than join hands with BJP’.
He said, “Understand it very well, it is acceptable to die but it is never acceptable to go with them (BJP). It's a bogus thing. What did they do by filing a case against his (Tejashwi) father?”
The CM added that BJP is now trying to divide his people and alliance.
“We were followers of Atal ji, everything was so good with him. Later, we joined them in 2017 and then parted ways...I did not want to become CM, I said that you have won more seats, but they forcibly made me the Chief Minister... Later everyone in our party told how we were defeated. Our people voted and they won... let the elections be held, then you will see, you will know people of Bihar properly.”
CM Nitish went on to say, “Elections were held twice in 2005, how much did they win and how much did we win? How much did they get in 2010? At that time, Muslim people were also voting for BJP, how much did they win in 2015 after getting separated? This time they defeated us and won by taking our votes and today they are saying, ‘we were in favor of Atal ji and Advani’.
He said that the present BJP is different from what it used to be during the time of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“The new party has become theirs (new BJP leaders), and everything is changing. They are changing names as well. You were born after independence only, will there be any point in forgetting those who contributed to freedom?” he said.
When asked to respond to BJP’s claim of winning 36 seats in Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, CM Nitish said that it’s all bogus and the saffron party will not get anything.