NEW DELHI: Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishore on Friday upped the ante against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after he mixed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name with former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee while addressing a rally.Kishore accused Bharatiya Janata Party of “imposing” Nitish on the heads of youth by making him custodian of Bihar.“I have been telling people for the last three months that Nitish Kumar’s psychological and physical condition is so bad that he cannot even name his fellow members of the Council of Ministers. Now, the situation has come to the point that they do not even remember the name of the Prime Minister,” kishore said.“By making him the custodian of Bihar, the BJP is imposing Nitish Kumar on the heads of the youth of Bihar,” he added.This comes a day after Nitish, who is already on public scrutiny, made another gaffe by mixing up PM Modi’s name with Vajpayee. Realising the error, he quickly attempted to recover, and asked the crowd to stand and “pranam” PM Modi.The moment added to a growing list of incidents that have raised concerns over Kumar’s public conduct and his health. Opposition leaders, including Bihar CM’s key challenger and RJD MLA Tejashwi Yadav, have questioned his health and suitability to continue governing the stateRecently, Nitish Kumar placed a potted plant on a senior IAS officer’s head during a government function.With his trademark calm, Nitish accepted the plant, and gently placed it on the officer’s head, drawing stunned silence followed by bursts of laughter from the audience. Siddharth, visibly taken aback, stood still as the chief minister continued, unbothered.In another incident, Kumar was seen clapping abruptly during a solemn tribute on Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, a clip that quickly went viral. Despite the misstep, Kumar praised the Modi government’s efforts for Bihar’s development.Speaking just ahead of PM Modi, he lauded the Centre’s support in the budget and welcomed the caste enumeration initiative to be carried out in the next population census. “The development work that is being done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of Bihar… Whatever Bihar has received is a matter of pride. I salute the Centre for announcing the caste-based census. People from other parties were trying to create confusion,” Kumar said.Bihar is heading toward assembly elections this November, with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) aligned with the BJP as part of the ruling NDA coalition. The state has 243 assembly seats up for contest.
