Patna: The NDA on Saturday reacted sharply to the opposition’s allegations of dynasty politics over former CM Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar becoming a minister in CM Samrat Choudhary’s cabinet.Congress and RJD leaders, including Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, had alleged that both the BJP and JD(U) could no longer speak against “parivarvad” as several ministers in the NDA govt came from political families.BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi defended Nishant and said he was an educated person who had even refused the deputy CM’s post.“What can the RJD possibly say? It is a party belonging to a single family. When Lalu Ji was about to go to jail, he handed the reins to his wife, Rabri Devi—who couldn’t even write her own name properly. He then made Tejashwi deputy CM, Tej Pratap the health minister and daughter Misa Bharti a Rajya Sabha member. Lalu’s brothers-in-law used to run government during Rabri Devi’s rule,” Sanjay said.Minister Dilip Jaiswal also rejected the dynasty politics allegation.“Dynastic politics is precisely when the son of a prominent leader ascends directly to the highest office. It is defined as a situation where a PM’s son becomes the PM, or a CM’s son becomes the chief minister,” Dilip said.He added that Nishant was new to politics and had entered public life through the party organisation.“Having now become a minister, he will undoubtedly perform even better in the future,” he said.JD(U) leaders also defended Nishant’s entry into politics. Senior party leader and minister Shrawan Kumar said Nitish Kumar had no role in bringing his son into politics.“Nishant himself was reluctant, but agreed to honor the call of youth across the state to join politics and the ministry. Otherwise, Nishant earlier refused to become even the deputy CM,” Shrawan said.JD(U) national executive president Sanjay Kumar Jha said Nitish had never brought Nishant into politics during his four decades in public life.“The party thought he should join after Nitish stepped down. Now people will judge Nishant based on his performance,” Sanjay said.Attacking Tejashwi, JD(U) state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha said the leader of the opposition had become like a “frustrated cat scratching at a pillar”.“Tejashwi is driven by the exasperation of suffering repeated setbacks in the political arena and remaining out of power for a prolonged period. Now he has resorted to making baseless and factually unfounded statements,” Umesh said.
