Bihar Election 2020: Nitish Kumar today said he has "sacrificed everything for Bihar". (File)
Nitish Kumar, facing twin attacks from opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav and ally-turned-rival Chirag Paswan in the Bihar election campaign, tackled them both in a tweet this morning. Those who are in politics "by inheritance" had no idea of what he had done for Bihar, the Chief Minister tweeted.
"Those who have got everything in inheritance have no idea of the struggle of karmveers (those who do their duty). I have sacrificed everything for Bihar. Service is my devotion," Nitish Kumar tweeted in Hindi with newspaper headlines of his campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan also amped up their attacks on the Chief Minister a day before the second round of voting for the Bihar election.
"Nitish Kumar is unable to handle Bihar. There are vacant jobs in education, health and law and order. We're asking the public to give us a chance so we can do what Nitish Kumar couldn't achieve in 15 years. His bidai (farewell) is guaranteed and a mahagatbandhan government coming to power," Tejashwi Yadav told reporters this morning.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader also responded sharply to Nitish Kumar deriding him and Chirag Paswan as a "cricketer and actor using him for publicity".
"What has happened to Nitish Kumar? Being such an experienced politician, how can he talk like that? Can we not come into politics from cricket and films? Does he mean that doctors, engineers can't come either," he questioned.
Chirag Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is contesting separately from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the sole agenda of defeating Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal United (JDU), wrote a stinging letter to the Chief Minister accusing him of "pretending" to be close to his father Ram Vilas Paswan, a veteran Bihar politician and Union Minister who died last month.
"Why don't you ask the Prime Minister whether anyone was not allowed to meet Papa in his final days? When he was unwell, he never visited him. Today only for his political gains he is pretending to be close to him," Chirag Paswan wrote.
Questioning Nitish Kumar on his achievements and his development roadmap, Mr Paswan released a "new slogan" clubbing the Chief Minister and Tejashwi Yadav both as disasters.
"If Nitish is kuan, Tejashwi is khai (loosely translated to mean a choice between the devil and the deep sea), LJP-BJP will form government," he said, once again pressing the possibility of the his party and the BJP teaming up without Nitish Kumar despite the BJP repeatedly endorsing the Chief Minister's leadership of the NDA.
Bihar started voting for a new government on October 28. After tomorrow's voting, the final round will be held on November 7. The results will be declared on November 10.