Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has appealed to non-BJP parties to make a 'Sangh-mukt' (Sangh-free) country ‘to save democracy’.
"Sangh-mukt Bharat banane ke liye sabhi gair BJP parties ko ek hona hoga (to usher in a Sangh-free India, all non-BJP parties have to come together)," the JD(U) chief said at the 'Advantage Conclave' in Patna.
"Uniting against BJP and its divisive ideology is the only way to save democracy," said Mr Kumar, who has already talked about "largest possible unity" among secular parties.
The BJP on Sunday said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader was 'daydreaming'.
“What is Nitish Kumar’s credibility to call for a BJP-mukt Bharat when he himself had been ‘BJP-yukt’ (associated with BJP) for 17 long years?” BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Hussain said such statements were a 'desperate bid on the part of a regional party leader' to hog the limelight. “Nitish Kumar’s JD-U is a regional party that has never contested on all the seats even in Bihar,” he said.
Hussain said the Bihar chief minister was dreaming of playing a crucial role in national politics. “These are his dreams but these dreams will not be realised. The Janata Dal is not united even in Bihar. So Nitish Kumar first needs to build his party at a national level before giving such statements,” Hussain added.
The BJP, the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS, had launched itself into the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with a call for "Congress-mukt Bharat" or Congress-free India, an election war-cry it has used in every subsequent poll.
The Chief Minister said he was not against any party or individual, but against "divisive" ideology of the Sangh, the ideological parent of BJP.
"The three stalwarts of the BJP -- Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi -- have been sidelined within the party and power has gone to people who have no faith in secularism and communal harmony," he alleged.
A day after becoming JD(U) president, Mr Kumar had, on April 11, said that he would strive for forging the "largest possible unity" against BJP by bringing Left and regional parties on one platform before the 2019 general elections.
In an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar said, "Management is more important than event management."
"Event management could benefit for sometime. But, there is a need to go into the depth of the issue. Sincere work done for the welfare of people itself reaches the masses," he said.
Referring to prohibition in Bihar, he said, "I have visited three-four districts (after announcement of total ban on liquor on April 5). I found its not only women, but even men are happy with it."
