Will prefer to quit than compromise with principles: Nitish

Apparently hinting at JDU`s relation with NDA partner BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he will not compromise with his principles `at any cost`.

Rajgir: Apparently hinting at JDU`s relation with NDA partner BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he will not compromise with his principles `at any cost` and if such a situation emerges he would prefer to quit than doing away with ideology.

"When it is difficult to predict about life than what is the need to worry about power... Death is a truth, that is why I am always prepared to make sacrifice," he said, adding JD(U) view on its `core ideology` of secularism was very clear.

Kumar was inaugurating a two-day training programme of JD(U) minorities cell here in his home district of Nalanda and his assertion follows the tough talking by JD(U) at its conclave in the national capital recently.

The hard-hitting statements of Kumar and other JD(U) leaders during the conclave were taken as a message to BJP that it could not remain with it in the event of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who faces the taint of Godhra riots, was made the NDA prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In a veiled attack on his bete noir RJD chief Lalu Prasad who is making a tour of the state to oust the NDA, Kumar said, "Some people who do not have much work are kneeling before masses seeking pardon for past misdeeds but the public is not ready to give them opportunity to repent."

Reiterating his demand for special category status for Bihar, the chief minister said if the Centre did not accept it "We will take the privilege on our strength after 2014 general elections."

State JD(U) chief Bashist Narayan Singh, Water Resources minister Vijay Chaudhary and Minorities Morcha head Abdullah Salam were present on the occasion.

PTI

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