Prominent Muslim MP Rips Into Bihar State Chief Over Past Alliance With BJP

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has often accused India's top opposition leaders of putting the cause of secularism on the back burner. Bihar State chief Nitish Kumar is the latest to face the criticism.

Prominent Muslim MP and chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Party, Asaduddin Owaisi, has blasted Bihar State Chief and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar over his past association with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"He became the chief minister (state chief) of Bihar when he was with the BJP. When the Godhra violence happened, he was with the BJP. Albeit, he left them in 2015 but he joined forces again in 2017, and ended up contesting the 2019 (Lok Sabha) polls to make Narendra Modi win. He has left them now," Owaisi said in an interview with news agency ANI on Saturday.

The BJP is a Hindu nationalist party and critics have often accused it of discriminating against minorities, especially Muslims - a charge it has vociferously denied.

Last month, Kumar severed ties with the BJP in Bihar before going on to form a new government in partnership with the Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress parties.

Since ending his alliance with the BJP, Kumar has ramped up efforts to unify several opposition parties in his pursuit to remove PM Narendra Modi's party from power in Delhi in the 2024 elections.

Earlier this week, he had a string of meetings with many top opposition leaders opposed to the BJP, including Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India), and Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party).