Lalu-Rabri's villagers up in arms over Nitish's 8-9 children remark
New Delhi: It seems Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is facing a 'tough time' in the assembly elections as his controversial statements against the Lalu-Rabri family is set to haunt him till the elections for 243 assembly seats get over on November 7 when Bihar will have its third and final phase of polling.
Notably, in a personal attack on Lalu-Rabri family, Nitish Kumar had said that what development can be expected from people producing "eight-nine children for a son".
The villagers, particularly women, of former chief minister Rabri Devi's native village Selar Kala are up in the arms over the incumbent CM for insulting a woman.
Talking to Millennium Post, Dharamshila Devi, a native of Rabri's village, said, "This was not expected from Nitish Kumar. He failed on every front to provide safety and security to women and now using such a "cheap" language to draw the attention to create a divide between literate and illiterate women. It won't work for him."
"The chief minister, who is well educated, should have not talked about women having how many children in public rallies. Why doesn't he talk about rise in rape cases, failure of prohibition, etc," the age-old lady said.
Citing traditional practices, another woman, Satwanti Devi said, "Having big families was a tradition in earlier times. Even Nitish Kumar has longer family as he is one among the five siblings. Illiteracy has a role in it, but it cannot be blamed for all as there are several educated families who have longer families across the state as having a bigger family were very common in those days." Similar views were expressed from the villagers of Phulwaria, the native village of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. "The fear of losing the election has come as a shock for Nitish Kumar who has lost his cool and forgotten the basic decency."
"He first showcased Lalu Prasad's daughter-in-law to the stage for a few votes and then talked about women like this. He is playing with the prestige of women," said Balram Mahto.
"When Laluji does not have a problem with his nine children, then why Nitish Kumar is worried about it. The real worry for Nitishji is Tejashwi Yadav, who has become a major challenge for him. When people started boycotting him over his failure in providing jobs to youths of the state, he has come to this level," another villager Ramnarayan Prasad said.
As per the residents of Phulwaria, the village has better roads, railway station, helipad, land registry office, post office, bank, government school and referral hospital, which happened during the RJD regime.
The Gopalganj district has six assembly constituencies, which includes Baikunthpur, Barauli, Gopalganj, Kuchaikote, Bhorey(SC) and Hathua. In total, there are 103 candidates in the fray. The candidates in the race include Rabri's brother Sadhu Yadav, former IPS officer Sunil Kumar, former MP Kali Prasad Pandey, controversial MLA Amtrendra Kumar alias Pappu Pandey and Ramdarshan Prasad alias Munna Kinnar, etc.
