Patna: Taking potshot at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for denying ticket to JD(U)`s sole minority MP Monazir Hasan, BJP on Thursday claimed that the Muslims in the state have not taken kindly to the ruling party`s decision and decided switch allegiance to NDA in the general elections.
"The Chief Minister`s decision to deny ticket to Hasan, the outgoing Lok Sabha member from Begusarai has not gone well with the Muslims who have made up their mind to desert the ruling JD(U) and switch over allegiance to NDA in the general elections," the BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahanwaz Hussain told reporters here.
Hasan is not the first Muslim politician to suffer at the hands of the Chief Minister as he had eased out the then excise minister Jamshed Ashraf from his government during UPA-I and more recently pushed the then Social Wefare Minister Parveen Amanullah to quit, he said.
"Why does a Chief Minister who professes to be a votary of the minority community has been so unfair to Muslim politicians in his party?" Hussain asked.
The senior BJP leader also attacked Kumar for putting up its candidates in Bihar with a nefarious design to ensure defeat of the NDA candidates and not for the purpose of winning the seats, but refused to elaborate further.
"The JD(U) appears to be driven by zealously against the BJP and is more interested in ensuring defeat of NDA candidates than winning these seats," he said.
Hussain, who is himself contesting from Bhagalpur seat to seek a third consecutive term in Parliament, exuded confidence that his party in alliance with the RLSP and LJP will make a clean sweep on all 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar going by response of the people across Bihar.
On the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar`s observation that the BJP was creating a hype akin to `India Shining` campaign of 2004 that may boomrang on it, the BJP leader said that such a statement was expected from a leader whose party was facing exodus so much so that the daughter of a senior leader of his party has joined us.
