Who is secular leader in NDA?: Lalu Prasad

RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Tuesday asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to identify the secular leader in NDA in the backdrop of the latter's call to the NDA to select a secular candidate to be its prime ministerial candidate in 2014 general elections.

"Who is the secular leader in NDA?" he said and asked Kumar to clarify as much saying that the latter has been enjoying power in Bihar by sitting in the lap of the communal forces like BJP and RSS. Prasad questioned the Chief Minister's secular credentials in the context of 2002 riots in Gujarat and said that the latter was the Railways minister during the Godhra incident, but he did not order an investigation.

"Is he (Kumar) trying to put forward his case as the NDA's prime ministerial candidate?" he asked. The RJD leader also attacked the Chief Minister for arrest of several youths of Bihar districts by the ATS and the police of other states on alleged terror charges.

"One of the youths died in jail in Maharashtra, but the Chief Minister neither spoke nor took up the matter with other states," Prasad said.