Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asserted that Bihar was making progress with generous help from the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and urged the people to vote for the National Democratic Alliance in the assembly elections.
The Janata Dal-United president addressed a rally in Samastipur district, from where the prime minister launched his campaign for the high-stakes elections.
Kumar lambasted Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, whom he did not mention by name, for misgoverning the state and 'making his wife the chief minister when he had to step down'.
The longest-serving CM was referring to the resignation of Prasad from the post of chief minister in 1997, following a Central Bureau of Investigation charge-sheet in fodder scam cases, and the taking over of Rabri Devi.
Kumar added, "He (Lalu) has not mended his ways. After having propped up his wife, he is now busy backing sons and daughters".
The allusion was to Tejashwi Yadav, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc's chief ministerial candidate, and Misa Bharti, the Pataliputra MP.
"I had brief alliances with his party, only to realise that it was a mistake and I was better off in the coalition I had been a part of since the beginning", said the JD-U president, who has been an NDA partner, for the most part, since the 1990s.