Under attack from allies LJP and RJD over Rahul Gandhi's overtures to the Bihar Chief Minister, the Congress today sought to mollify them saying it is not going "to make a hero" of Nitish Kumar.
"I do not think Congress is going to make a hero of Nitish Kumar. The manner in which he has aligned with the BJP and is carrying on ... that kind of a pollution of his secular credentials with the communal,' AICC media department in-charge M Veerappa Moily said.
His comments came in the wake of reports that Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan were skipping today's Cabinet meeting in disapproval of Congress' overtures to "rivals" like Kumar.
He accused the Bihar Chief Minister of following a mixed communal and secular agenda "What he (Kumar) is doing is a mix of communal agenda and also the secular agenda.
We are not happy with (with this)," he added. Moily also alleged that for Kumar retaining the Chief Ministership was more important than ideology and maintained that Congress was aware of Kumar's limitations.
"We know his limitations. He is with JD-U. Sooner he joins hands with us, he will collapse. He knows it. To him, retaining chiefministership is more important than ideology. He is prepared to join with the communal forces like BJP to continue to be the Chief Minister," he said.
"If he (Kumar) wants to do that it is up to him. If he wants to be within the communal cauldron and burn himself, I do not think that anybody can save him," Moily said, adding "he has to know his limitations."
On the issue of "straining" of relationship with RJD and LJP, Moily said there are "more reasons" for Congress to be angry, referring to seat sharing agreement in Bihar, where the two allies left just three out of 40 seats for Congress.
"We should be more angry...we never let them (Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan) down. (However) Paswan and Lalu for the reasons best known to them just decided the seats for themselves," he said.
"Can a national party like Congress gulp this kind of insult. It was because of this reason that Congress fielded candidates in both seats (Ram Vilas Paswan's constituency Hajipur and Lalu Prasad's constituency Patliputra)," Moily said.
If "proper discussions" and "harmonious dialogues" had taken place over the seat sharing issue, "may be that situation would not have arisen", he said, adding both in UP and Bihar, the allies chose their "own path of confrontation".
