Rahul Gandhi on Nitish Kumar: Was aware he would pull out 3-4 months ago

New Delhi / In his first comments after Nitish Kumarpulled out of the Grand Alliance and formed a coalition government with the BJP, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said he knew about the Bihar chief minister’s plan three to four months before he broke ranks on Wednesday.

“Politics keliye unhi logon se gala lagaya, yehi tho problem hai indian politics mei (For politics he (Nitish) joined hands with the same people (BJP), this is the problem in Indian politics),” Rahul Gandhi told reporters.

“In politics you come to know about what an person is thinking…I have known this for three-four months…People will do anything for power and self interest…,” he added.

Nitish on Thursday took oath as chief minister for the sixth time with support from the BJP. Sushil Kumar Modi returned as deputy chief minister of Bihar.

In a shock move on Wednesday, Nitish met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and put in his papers. This came just hours after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav declared that his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad will not resign. He also claimed that there was no rift within the Grand Alliance and it was just a media creation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Nitish for taking a stand against corruption. Nitish then met Governor Tripathi after midnight to stake claim to form government with the BJP support.

Reacting to the development, Lalu Prasad said: “There had been a setting with the BJP. When someone asked him (Nitish) if he could go with BJP, he did not say no. It clearly suggests BJP setting. The PM’s congratulatory tweet followed to prove my point. I knew about this case for long but had kept quiet. How can he ask for Tejashwi’s resignation when he faces such a serious case as murder that entails life imprisonment and capital sentence?”