Will never go back to BJP: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Amid questions being raised over his credibility for swapping his allies too frequently, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday declared he would never go back to the BJP again and rather work for the betterment of the state together in the company of socialist friends.
"Jan lijiye, jeevan bhar ham kisi bhi tarah se unlogon ke saath nahin jayenge (please note I will never go back to them)," Nitish declared obliquely referring to BJP, while addressing a function to mark the inauguration of a government engineering college in Samastipur on Friday.
The chief minister had made similar claims earlier after breaking 17-year-old association with BJP in 2013 saying, "Mitti mein mil jayenge lekin BJP ke saath nahin jayenge (I will prefer getting reduced to ashes than going back to BJP)". Strangely, he returned to the BJP in July 2017 only to part company with the saffron partner 5 years later again.
Nitish tore into his erstwhile saffron partner and wondered how the ruling party at the Centre doesn't listen to anybody. He said BJP was only working to create conflict in the society and it had nothing to do with the development of the country.
He narrated how BJP forced him to break alliance with RJD after raising the corruption issues concerning Lalu Prasad, but later nothing as such was found against him. "But now that we have come together again, they (BJP) are again filing cases against him (Lalu family). You can understand what kind of job they have been indulging in," he told the crowd.
He said the current BJP leadership was least interested in caring for its allies or thinking about development. "They don't listen to anyone, don't talk to anyone and have nothing to do with the development of the states," Nitish said.
He said his government had planned to set up medical colleges and hospitals in every district across the state so that the people got health facilities close to their homes. Right now, medical colleges are being constructed in Bhojpur, Buxur and Katihar, he said, adding the government had also reserved one-third of seats for girl students in medical and engineering colleges. Apart from them, separate universities for medical and engineering colleges have also been set up. Polytechnic institutes have been set up in every district of the state, he said.
(With inputs from SK Jain in Samastipur)