CPI welcomes JD-U's decision to severe ties with BJP

New Delhi, June 17: CPI today welcomed JD(U)'s decision to break its 17-year ties with the BJP and said its legislators would vote in support of Nitish Kumar government in the confidence vote in the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday.

"This, however, does not mean any overall support for the Nitish Kumar Government whose every action will be judged on its merits," CPI Central Secretariat said in a statement.

The CPI and the CPI-ML (Liberation) also opposed the Bihar Bandh call given by the BJP tomorrow, with the former terming JD(U)'s move as "an important step following the elevation of Narendra Modi within BJP and in the battle against the divisive communal forces of Hindutva."

Maintaining that the JD(U) should have "taken this decision earlier in the interest of secularism", the CPI said, "It is crystal clear that it is the RSS fatwas that now dictate every move and micro manages every step of the BJP."

The CPI-ML (Liberation), while welcoming the break-up of the JD(U)-BJP alliance, said, "We will not let Nitish Kumar shift the agenda in Bihar, and will hold his Government responsible for all its betrayals and failures on the question of land reform, justice, corruption and people's rights."

It also accused Nitish Kumar of "hobnobbing in an equally opportunist way with authoritarian and corrupt forces like Congress and Trinamool Congress. Nitish Kumar is now competing with Laloo Prasad to appease the Congress."

The CPI-ML also said that the JD(U)-BJP alliance was formed and broken on the basis of "opportunism" and added that it was very apparent that the break-up is not inspired by a genuine concern for secularism and democracy, but out of Nitish Kumar's opportunist political calculations.

The party also accused Nitish Kumar of giving strength and legitimacy to BJP and Modi for 17 years and remaining a Minister in the NDA Government even in the aftermath of the Gujarat massacre in 2002.

PTI