In the middle of a heated election campaign which often turned personal and ugly, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a debate on ‘reservation’.
Nitish said that the PM must stop ‘communalising the state Assemble elections. He tweeted:
Modiji I’m ready to debate the issue of reservation with you anyday. Stop misleading people&your efforts to add communal color to BiharPolls
— Nitish Kumar (@NitishKumar) October 31, 2015
Reservations for historically backward castes have often found centrestage in the political discourse of the state in the run-up to the elections, which will see Nitish fighting a two-term anti-incumbency against the onslaught of a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is seeking to make inroads into the state.
In a comment which was seen by many as communal, Prime Minister Modi had said in an election rally that the Chief Minister had ‘intended to snatch’ 5 per cent quota from SCs, STs, OBCs and EBCs and that he wanted to give reservation only on ‘communal’ basis.
Arch-rival Rashtriya Janatal Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav had lashed out at the PM over the reservation row. On Saturday, Lalu said that this was the first time the nation had seen such an ‘insensitive’ Prime Minister.
“He is the king of scams as he has pulled a number of them across the nation. Even now he is using the money he procured from various scam for the Bihar elections. Let me assure you that Narendra Modi’s farewell from this nation is set and no one can save him. It’s the first time the nation has had such an insensitive and senseless Prime Minister,” Lalu told the media.