RJD a private political party, family political asset: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today took a swipe at his arch rival, Lalu Prasad, terming the latter's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) as a "private political party" and a "family political asset" which he said would be "back to the pavilion" in the next state Assembly polls.

"It (RJD) is not an ordinary political outfit. It is a private political party," he said in response to a query on Prasad filing nomination for the post of RJD president for the 10th consecutive time. He is the sole candidate to have filed papers for election to the post.

"Although it is an internal matter of that party, I wonder whether there is a provision in the RJD constitution for electing a new president every year. After all, the party had elected its national president only last year. But, what to say of a party which has become a family political asset," the JD(U) chief said sarcastically.

"Perhaps, this entire exercise of electing a new party president is simply a trick to remain in the news. I have known him (Prasad) since our student days. He knows well how to hog the limelight," Kumar, who had quit the Grand Alliance comprising the RJD and the Congress in July, said.

On the vitriolic attacks by RJD leaders against him and his party in the recent past, the JD(U) national president said, "Hurling abuses is in their culture. But that has never been my nature. I have, therefore, asked my spokesmen not to respond to personal attacks against me."

"They are excited over the fact that they had won so many seats in the last (Bihar) Assembly polls. Let the next polls (in 2020) come. It will be back to the pavilion for them," Kumar said.

The RJD had won 80 seats in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls to emerge as the single largest party in the state.

In the wake of the disintegration of the Grand Alliance, Kumar, while returning the barbs of the RJD, had on several occasions reminded the latter of its stock going down to only 22 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly after the 2010 state polls, which the JD(U)-BJP combination had won convincingly.

About the repeated attacks from Prasad's younger son Tejaswhi Yadav, who was his deputy in the erstwhile Grand Alliance government in the state, the chief minister said, "He is just a kid. But, maybe he has inherited certain traits of his father."