Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has not given up its resolve to form its own government in the state by accepting Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar as the chief minister.
Choudhary, who is also the state BJP president, made a statement to the effect in Patna at an auditorium packed with party workers and senior leaders.
"It was a tough call for us. Lots of discussions took place at the national and the state levels, and finally, a decision was taken to drive out of power the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal), which had once brought 'jungle raj' to Bihar," said Choudhary, referring to the dramatic realignment the state witnessed a fortnight ago.
"We honour whichever alliance we are a part of, as long as it survives. We will do the same to Nitish Kumar whom the 'INDI Alliance' people had enticed with the promise of prime ministership but who realised in good time that it was a grouping merely formed to protect the corrupt," alleged the BJP leader.
"But remember there is no going back on our pledge to form our own government in Bihar one day," he added.
Choudhary, who joined BJP less than a decade ago but has taken to the party's idiom like fish to water, said it is an organisation that patiently works at attaining its stated objectives.
"Generations passed since Syama Prasad Mukherjee first raised voice against Article 370. When Narendra Modi won an absolute majority, it (Article 370) was consigned to the waste bin of history. Same with Ayodhya. For years detractors mocked our chants of 'mandir wahin banayenge' (Ram temple will be built at the site) with the barb - 'tareekh nahin bataenge' (we will not say by when construction would be complete)," he said.
The Deputy CM also asserted that while sharing power in the state, the BJP would ensure a crackdown on the 'liquor mafia, land mafia and sand-mining mafia'.
