NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party now considers Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar a “burden” ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.Addressing a press conference after the Congress Working Committee in Patna, Kharge said that internal conflict within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was not out in in the open and that the BJP had “mentally retired” Nitish.
“The internal conflict within the NDA alliance has now come out in the open. The BJP has mentally retired Nitish Kumar, now considering him a burden,” Kharge said.Additionally, Kharge said that 80% of Bihar’s population belongs to the OBC, EBC, and SC/ST categories and thus, people want a transparent caste census. “In Bihar, 80% of the population belongs to OBC, EBC, SC, and ST communities, and the people want transparency in caste census and reservation policies. The Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi have cornered the central government, compelling it to conduct a caste census,” he added.The Congress president also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised on numerous occasions to revive Bihar’s sugar industry. This comes as Congress top brass met in Patna for the party’s first post-Independence Working Committee meeting in Bihar.Congress held a Working Committee meeting focusing on the assembly election strategy and increasing pressure on the BJP over alleged “vote chori” (vote theft).The extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting included permanent and special invitees, party chief ministers, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents, and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders.Senior Congress leaders at the meeting included Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, treasurer Ajay Maken, general secretaries KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot, and Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar.Meanwhile, the BJP criticised the Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc. Ahead of the CWC meeting, the Bihar BJP released two posters suggesting a dispute within the bloc over seat-sharing before the assembly elections.One poster stated: “The RJD is ready to be plundered, as chaos has erupted before the election.”Malviya further claimed that the Congress holding its CWC meeting in Bihar since Independence was the “final nail in the coffin” for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav’s chance of becoming chief minister.
