Breaking his silence on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from the Grand Alliance and joining the NDA, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that Kumar was stuck in his (Mr. Gandhi’s) pressure to conduct the caste census and in the pressure of the BJP for not conducting it, so he left.
Taking the entire credit for the caste survey of Bihar, Gandhi, in his rally in Purnea on Tuesday, said, “I had told Kumar to conduct the caste census in Bihar and would not exempt him from doing it.”.
The constituent units of the grand alliance government, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Congress got it done by mounting pressure on Kumar, but now the pressure was from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which did not want the caste census to be done, he maintained. The Congress leader said that Kumar was stuck, and the BJP gave him a way to come out of this pressure. Kumar takes the “U” turn even under minimal pressure, Gandhi quipped.
The Congress leader said, “It is the responsibility of our alliance to provide social justice in Bihar. There is no need for Nitish Kumar in Bihar; we will do our work here.”.
