File photo of BJP president Amit Shah with party leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain at an election rally. (Press Trust of India photo)
BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain today described the Grand Alliance a coalition of "power hungry" parties considering the "contrasting" roles played by the alliance leaders with reference to the Bhagalpur riots.
"The very nature of grand alliance raises several question marks vis-a-vis the Bhagalpur riots in late 1980s which took place during the Congress rule, Lalu Prasad came to power after the 1989 elections and brazenly protected the perpetrators, while Nitish Kumar upon becoming the Chief Minister in 2005 had the riot cases re-investigated..." he told reporters.
All three parties, who had taken contrasting stances on the Bhagalpur riot incidents in which thousands of Muslims were killed, have now joined forces for collective self-interest, Hussain, the BJP national spokesperson, said.
On Chief Minister Nitish Kumar trying to put the NDA government at the Centre on mat on socio-economic and political issues, he questioned Kumar's national vision claiming that he did not have any business to do so as he was not even a full-fledged leader of Bihar itself.
"It's a matter of fact that Kumar has never contested all 243 Assembly seats in Bihar nor his party won majority seats on its own, but yet he worries about the entire country and gives unsolicited advice to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Mr Hussain said and asked the Chief Minister to keep the counsel to himself as the PM does not need 'NOC' (no objection certificate) from him on any issue.
With the caste and beef issues emerging as major poll planks in Bihar, the senior BJP leader charged Mr Prasad and Mr Kumar with fomenting communal strife in the state to reap electoral dividends "which was in stark contrast with the BJP-led coalition's sole thrust on development to win the elections."
"The RJD supremo and the senior JD-U leader are deliberately raking up reservation and beef issues to polarize the voters and derail the NDA's development plank," he said.
On film actor-turned-BJP lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha's statement that the "cancellation" of PM's rallies in Bihar had sent a wrong signal to the voters, Mr Hussain refrained from taking on his party colleague, but said that there was no plan to hold Mr Modi's rally in the state in the past week.
On the BJP lawmaker from Patna Sahib backing the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's stand for review of reservation policy, he said that the Prime Minister himself and the BJP national president Amit Shah have clarified time and again that the quota for the OBCs and SC/SCs was there to stay.