Assembly Election 2016: Nitish asks BJP not to go overboard celebrating Assam victory

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has cautioned BJP against going overboard with celebrations of its victory in Assam, as he congratulated all political parties and alliances which emerged victorious in assembly polls in the five states whose results were declared on Thursday. “The BJP need not rejoice beyond a point over its victory in Assam which has come due to stitching up alliance which the Congress has failed to do in the belief that it was capable to win the polls on its own,” Kumar told reporters. He said had there been an experiment (stitching up alliance) like the one in Bihar, the outcome of Assam assembly polls would have been entirely different. Taking a subtle dig at the Congress for its strategy to go alone in Assam, the Bihar Chief Minister noted that the outcome of the polls in the largest north-eastern state swung in favour of the BJP as it had formed a pre-poll alliance with some regional parties. [caption id=“attachment_2790100” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] In Kerala, the the CPI(M)-led LDF won a massive mandate despite best efforts of the BJP to make its presence felt, the Janata Dal (United) national president said, adding, he had visited the state during electioneering and observed that the LDF was in the lead. He said the results in other states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry came on expected lines without throwing any surprises or whatsoever. He congratulated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalitha for winning mandate for successive terms. On the BJP reviving its pet slogan of ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’, Kumar said the slogan had no meaning as the Congress won the assembly polls in Puducherry. “A party (BJP) which is ruling the country is deliberately not seeing results of four states going against it and continues to think that it rules in all states,” he said and had a dig at the saffron party for nursing such a domineering mindset. He reminded the JD(U) ally-turned political foe that its Assam victory has been helped by the allies more than any other factor. “If the allies would not have been there, the BJP’s gameplan in Assam could have gone awry,” he said. The Bihar Chief Minister reiterated his stand that there should be maximum effort to bring all those parties opposed to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on one platform and said Banerjee is in the frame for unity of anti-BJP parties as she has got a massive mandate from the electorate.