Nitish fires "8-9 kids" jibe; Tejashwi retorts with 'mentally tired' barb
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar fired another salvo at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, though without naming him, saying no development can be expected from people producing 8-9 kids for a son, inviting a strong retort from Tejashwi Yadav who said the JD(U) boss is tired -- both mentally and physically .
Kumar used the slur at an election meeting at Mahnar in Vaishali district Monday.
"Kisi ko chinta hain. 8-9 bachha paida karte hain. Beti par bharosa nahi hai. 7-8 beti ho jane ke bad ladka hua. Kaisa Bihar Banana chahte hain...agar logo ka yahi aadarsh hain to Bihar ka kya hoga."
"Does anybody care? They produce 8-9 kids. They have no faith on daughters. They had 7-8 daughters before a son. What kind of Bihar they want to make? If this is their ideal, what will happen to Bihar? Kumar said, without naming anybody but his obvious target was RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, who have nine children.
Reacting to Kumar's statement, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav told reporters in Patna Tuesday that by making such comments Kumar is targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has 5-6 brothers and sisters."
Yadav further said he takes Kumar's "abuses too as "blessings .
He said the chief minister's remark was an affront to the dignity of his mother as well as to other women's. He is tired both physically and mentally. And hence he is making such remarks, Yadav said.
In the same Mahnar election meeting, Kumar explained to people as to why he left the Grand Alliance in 2017 just two years after forming a government with the RJD and Congress in 2015.
"I told him (Tejashwi) to come clean on a charge levelled against him in a money laundering case. He could not. Soon, I realised they have returned to their old habits of influencing even police stations and so I thought it's difficult to work with them and walked out of the alliance," Kumar said.
He had dumped the grand alliance in July 2017, barely two years after forming government of the opposition coalition in Bihar in 2015. Soon, he joined hands with the BJP and led the NDA ministry in the state since then.
Kumar also slammed the RJD for "humiliating" its founding member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, allegedly forcing him to quit the party before his death last month.
"Raghuvansh babu was with them since the beginning in 1990 but how they treated him. These people are bothered only about their wife, sons and daughters," Kumar said, attacking Prasad, who is lodged in a jail in Ranchi after conviction in four cases of fodder scam.
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh's son Satya Prakash Singh, who has joined the JD(U) since his father's death, also hit out at Prasad's family for "mistreating my father in his last days.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
