Patna, October 28: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today lashed out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of doing “politics of opportunism” by tying up with BJP.
“Nitish Kumar is involved in politics of opportunism by joining hands with communal forces,” she said questioning the chief minister’s secular credentials.
Addressing election rallies, Gandhi said that the Bihar administration had failed on all fronts, including health and education sectors, despite getting crores of rupees from the Centre.
“There are complaints of corruption…But no tangible step has been taken to tackle this,” she said.
The Congress chief said Nitish is not what he appears to be in public and used a Hindi idiom ‘Haathi ke daant khane ke aur or dikhane ke aur’ to puncture the development plank being touted by the NDA government in the state.
“Nothing has been done in health and education, electricity and drinking water in the past five years. The Centre has provided resources for these sectors. But, unfortunately the state government failed to utilise them for the benefit of the common people,” she said.
She said, “The fact is that the Centre has fully cooperated with the state… But the state government has failed to make proper use of the Central funds.”
Accusing the chief minister of being “quick to pass the buck” to the Centre on problems faced by the state, the Congress president asked what the state government had done for recruitment of teachers and for rehabilitation.
Gandhi also accused the Nitish Kumar government of showing apathy toward silk industry in Bhagalpur because of which weavers were facing hardship. Bhagalpur has a sizeable Muslim population.
“There is no drinking water in Bhagalpur and industries are not coming up because of power shortage,” she said.
Enumerating the achievements of the UPA government since 2004, Gandhi said the state government had failed to implement major schemes, including MNREGA, Right to Education Act and other welfare schemes.
“Congress alone is a secular party which can develop the state without any discrimination,” she said and appealed to the people to vote for the party.
–PTI