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Journalism of Courage
Ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday reignited questions over Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s mental health after sharing a video showing the JD(U) chief insisting on garlanding a BJP candidate, Rama Nishad, during a public event in Aurai. The clip, which has gone viral, shows Kumar attempting to place a garland around Nishad’s neck despite visible hesitation from his aide and JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, who tried to stop him.
Posting the video on X, Yadav wrote, “He is a strange man indeed. If he is in sound mental health, why is he reading out from a written speech and indulging in such behaviour?” In the clip, Kumar can be seen greeting the woman candidate Nishad and trying to put a garland around her neck. However, Kumar’s close aide, Sanjay Kumar Jha, the party working president, is seen immediately trying to stop his mentor and tries to hold his hand. Kumar seems averse to his reaction, prompting Jha to retract his steps, and Kumar is heard saying, “You are a strange man” before he places the garland around the neck of Nishad.
Kumar launched his assembly poll campaign in Meenapur constituency of Muzaffarpur district and he left the crowd laughing over mispronouncing local candidate Ajay Kushwaha’s name and adding the prefix “Shri” to Nishad. The 75-year-old remarked that if the public promised to vote for the NDA, he would like to put garlands around the necks of candidates as a mark of assured victory, a PTI report said.
Earlier, Yadav had raised suspicion over the mental health of Kumar and his “ability to run the government” after a function attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Alleging Kumar of “erratic behaviour”, Yadav shared a video of the function held in New Delhi, which the Bihar CM attended virtually from his residence.
The 35-year-old leader said, “For quite some time, the CM has been behaving in a manner that shows he is not in the proper state of mind. He has made crude remarks about my mother Rabri Devi, a former CM herself, besides women in general. Once, he was caught on camera fooling around while the national anthem was being played in the background”.
“Yesterday we saw another example of his erratic behaviour,” said the RJD leader, referring to the video footage in which Kumar can be seen staring with folded hands, at his computer screen even as senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary read out his speech.
The Bihar Assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11 and the counting of votes will take place on November 14. With two days left for the final withdrawal of nominations, the Mahagathbandhan alliance is yet to provide clarity on its seat-sharing formula.
(With PTI inputs)
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