JD(U) fights speculation, RJD hits back at Nitish

PATNA:  A Delhi media circle speculation on two JD(U) leaders joining the NDA Cabinet at the Centre, has sparked off another intense political war in Bihar. While MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh and RCP Singh’s names were touted for the berths and fanned by party spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad’s statement that “such a decision was the prerogative of the CM and PM,” has now given way to confusion.

JD(U) had demanded three ministerial berths last May when the NDA stormed back to power but withdrew its consent to join the Centre after being offered just one. Speculations over the fresh offer to join the Centre comes close on the heels of JD(U) vice president Prashant Kishor’s comment that his party deserved to fight more seats than ally BJP in the Assembly polls this year.

That shadow boxing between the JD(U) and BJP has not stopped was evident when deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi targeted Kishor as an ‘electoral data collector not competent of taking big decisions,’ which sparked controversy, forcing CM Kumar to step in to stop a conflagration.

The ongoing’s has encouraged the Opposition to cite NDA’s incompatibility amidst speculations that Kumar may yet bolt. However, top JD(U) sources said suggestions that the party may join the central cabinet was ‘mere conjecture.’ Meanwhile, the RJD has proposed a vigorous ‘hisab do, hisab lo’ (take  and give account) campaign in Bihar’s Seemanchal targeting the NDA. It sparked another anti-RJD campaign by JD(U), which put up posters comparing RJD’s 15 years with its own.

Giriraj advocates Gita recital to stop beef eating
Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday stoked a fresh controversy alleging that children who study in missionary schools lack “sanskaar” and end up adopting practices like “beef-eating” when they go abroad. Addressing a religious function at his Lok Sabha constituency Begusarai in Bihar, the BJP leader also advocated, as an antidote, teaching of “shlokas” of Bhagvad Gita and the verses of Hanuman Chalisa at private schools. “I say this because it has been seen that at schools run by missionaries, children from well-off families excel academically, go on to have successful careers, but when they go abroad they eat beef. Why so? This is because we have not inculcated sanskaar into them,” he said.