Patna,(BiharTimes): Stating that his party would take a final call on supporting chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi only on February 20 senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday reminded Nitish Kumar of March 10, 2000 when the then governor Vinod Pande addressed the joint session of the state Assembly, before Nitish presented the state budget (he had that portfolio then) and then moved the trust motion. Briefing the media 15 years later Sushil Modi, who was then a minister in the same Nitish cabinet, conceded now that the JD(U)-BJP alliance did not have the majority then yet the governor delivered the speech and Nitish went on to table the budget before quitting.“If the governor can read thespeech of the chief minister who had not yet proved his majority in the House in 2000 why can not this happen now,” he asked.

It needs to be recalled that Nitish had repeatedly been asking now as to whose speech the governor would read on February 20 when he had asked chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to prove majority on that very day.

Though SuMo did not explain the whole situation as to what had happened in March 2000 he in a way accepted 15 years later that the then governor under the pressure from the Vajpayee government did commit a mistake by inviting Nitish Kumar and not Rabri Devi to form the government.Both the RJD and JD(U)-BJP combine got 122 seats each in the election held in Feb-March 2000.

Though the RJD claimed to have the support of some other parties yet the governor called Nitish. On March 3 Nitish and Sushil Modi were sworn in and the former was asked to prove majority on March 10.The strength of the Assembly in pre-Jharkhand Bihar was 324. It was only after Nitish resigned on March 10 that on March 11 Rabri Devi was asked to form the government. She got the support of 25 MLAs of the Congress and other smaller parties and Indedependents.

On Tuesday SuMo also declined to disclose the strategy of his party. He said that the party legislators would take decision on supporting the Jitan Ram Manjhi government on February 20 itself.The delay in taking any clear cut decision reflects that there is no one voice in the BJP on the issue.