GRAND ALLIANCE DESTROYED LOHIA’S LEGACY, SAYS JAITLEY

NEW DELHI: In a sharp attack against the Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday accused the socialist leaders of destroying Ram Manohar Lohia’s legacy by aligning with the Congress for the upcoming Bihar polls.

“Those who do politics in the name of Lohia are now visiting AICC (Congress headquarters) for press conferences every day. The legacy of Dr Lohia has been destroyed by these people,” Jaitley said, while launching the BJP youth wing’s nationwide ‘Panch Kranti Abhiyan’ on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on Thursday.

The senior BJP leader also took potshots at Cong ress chief Sonia Gandhi saying she was given the role of warmup speaker at a rally in Patna recently and predicted that the Congress would also be defeated in states that will go to polls in the future.

Jaitley said the Congress government’s model was that of a company where all powers rest with the board of governors and a CEO running it. He added that it was Indira Gandhi who felt that the right to rule rested only with the family and the party gave the slogan ‘Indira is India, India is Indira’.

Jaitley said despite ruling Bihar for 25 years, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar could not develop the state. He rejected Kumar’s offer of a debate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on development and cited a recent World Bank report.

“What is there to debate? This debate is over. Gujarat is number one and Bihar stands at 21. The economy speaks through statistics and not through debate,” he said. “We will win Bihar polls. It will be a repeat of what happened during the Lok Sabha elections.”