Nitish Kumar terms RJD strongman Shahabuddin's remarks as 'unimportant', says 'people know mandate of Bihar'

Nitish Kumar on Sunday termed as 'unimportant' Mohammad Shahabuddin​'s remarks describing him as 'CM of circumstances'.

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Patna: A day after Mohammad Shahabuddin took swipe at him, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday termed as 'unimportant' the RJD strongman's remarks describing him as 'CM of circumstances'.

Kumar also said that he would go by the people's mandate and not by what someone else says.

"We have not got the mandate to give reactions. You (media persons) too are wasting your time and space on this. The whole world knows what is the mandate of the people of Bihar. Should I go by the people's mandate or pay attention to what someone is saying? We have not paid attention to such things in the past. All these things are not important," he told reporters.

Kumar said this in response to a query by media persons on the sidelines of a programme at Bihar College of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy in Patna.

Shahabuddin yesterday had walked out of prison on bail after 11 years with much fanfare and had praised party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

"For me Lalu Prasad is the leader" and Nitish Kumar is the CM "circumstantially", the controversial leader had said, as he had emerged out of the Bhagalpur divisional jail and had left in a convoy of three hundred vehicles for Siwan.

Shahabuddin is a member of RJD national committee - the top decision-making body of the party - and is known to be close to the RJD chief.

He has been a four-time MP from Siwan. Various pending cases against Shahabuddin were reopened and he was sent to jail after Kumar had assumed power in 2005.

He had got final reprieve on Wednesday when Patna High Court granted him bail in a case of murder of a witness in the 2004 killing of two brothers in Siwan.  He had got bail in nearly 12 other cases earlier.

Shahabuddin was accorded a grand reception by his supporters and RJD workers.

He was welcomed by RJD Lok Sabha MP from Bhagalpur, Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal, at Jehangir Chowk in Bhagalpur and by other supporters at Naughachia in the same district.

Asked by newsmen whether his prolonged jail term had harmed him politically, Shahabuddin had said, "A little damage has happened."

His wife Heena Sahab lost to Om Prakash Yadav of BJP in the last parliamentary election from Siwan in 2014.

Meanwhile, in an embarrassment to the Bihar CM, RJD vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today said, "What is wrong in it (Shahabuddin's statement)? Nitish Kumar has indeed been a Chief Minister of circumstances and not because of his own strength and numbers."

On the other hand, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi termed as a "well-planned strategy" of the Nitish Kumar government to ensure the RJD strongman's release from jail. 

(With PTI inputs)