SC SETBACK FOR NITISH KUMAR
Lalu accuses Nitish of betrayal, says 'match was fixed' between Nitish & BJP
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea seeking cancellation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's membership of the state Legislative Council for allegedly concealing a pending criminal case against him. A bench of Justices Justice Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar said it will look into the matter after petitioner advocate M L Sharma sought an urgent hearing of his plea.
The bench said it would see when the matter could be listed for hearing.
The plea, which was filed yesterday, alleged that there was a criminal case against the JD(U) leader wherein he was accused of killing a local Congress leader Sitaram Singh, and injuring four others ahead of Lok Sabha by-election to the Barh constituency in 1991.
The petitioner has also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR against Kumar in the case.
"Respondent number 2 (Election Commission), despite knowing facts about his (Kumar's) criminal case, did not cancel his membership of the house and respondent (Kumar) still enjoys constitutional office till date," he said.
The lawyer has sought cancellation of Kumar's membership as per the Election Commission's 2002 order stating it is mandatory for candidates to disclose criminal cases against them in their affidavits annexed to nomination papers.
He claimed the Bihar chief minister did not disclose the criminal case that was pending against him in affidavits since 2004, except for 2012.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Tuesday hit back at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of "betrayal" for breaking the Grand Alliance, and alleged that the "match was fixed" between him and the BJP to form a coalition government in the state.
"Tejaswi Yadav was just an excuse ... The match was fixed between him (Kumar) and the BJP to form a government together," Prasad told reporters.
Calling Kumar an "opportunist" and "Paltu Ram" (turncoat), he said, even if Tejaswi had tendered his resignation the JD(U) leader would have gone ahead with his plan to split the alliance.
Kumar had in a blistering attack on Prasad yesterday said he had no option but to walk out of the Grand Alliance as he did not want to compromise with corruption.
Ridiculing Kumar for his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would face little challenge in the 2019 general elections, Prasad said, "Keep shouting slogans in favour of Narendra Modi ... PM material (Nitish Kumar) has surrendered before him but we will have another face against him (Modi) in 2019."
Prasad also accused Kumar of undermining senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who, he said, had contributed a lot to making him a "big leader".
Prasad said he has offered Yadav to "come out from there (the JD-U) and join hands with secular parties to protect the country from communal forces".
He, however, clairified that Yadav has not been requested to join the RJD but be part of a country-wide movement against communal forces.