india

Updated: Sep 15, 2019 21:10 IST

A day after his flip-flop on JD (U) joining the grand alliance, RJD vice president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Sunday said the party would launch a sustained campaign against the Centre for allegedly pushing the country into a debilitating economic slowdown and also corner the state government on the alleged dismal law and order situation.

By also targeting the state government, the former union minister tried to dispel the notion that the RJD had gone soft on Nitish Kumar and that the grand alliance was in dire need of an acceptable chief ministerial face for taking on the BJP.

On Saturday, Singh had raised a political storm by stating that Nitish Kumar will soon return to the grand alliance before retracting by the evening after a meeting with the Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

In response to media queries on party’s view of Nitish Kumar and his U-turn, Singh admitted that the party needs to be strengthened and re-energized first. “Once we show our strength and support at the ground level then others will consider a tie-up with us,” he said, adding, “Even this will happen only after Nitish Kumar severs ties with the NDA.”

He said the party will raise the issue of “the job cuts, debt of Rs 25,000 on every individual, hefty fine regime in the name of new traffic rules, poor health of state’s finances and the deteriorating law and order situation” in the state.

He accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of blindly following the BJP on every step without caring about the people, as was “evident” in the implementation of new motor vehicle act even when Gujarat had taken a divergent stand on the matter.

The RJD leader claimed the BJP was trying to create chaos by suggesting a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise. “This is a failed idea and the confusion will have a crippling impact on economy just like the demonetization exercise, which failed to weed out fake currency from the system,” he said.