Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI: The Congress’ media in-charge, M. Veerappa Moily, on Friday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was polluting his secular credentials by aligning with a communal party like the BJP to remain in power. “If he wants to remain in the communal cauldron and burn himself, I do not think anybody can save him.”

These remarks, however, did not apparently go down well with the Congress leadership and he is learnt to have been relieved of his charge as chairman of the party’s media department and general secretary Janardan Dwivedi will step in.

The first indication of the leadership taking a grim view of his remarks came from Mr. Moily himself when he refused to repeat his comments in the morning about Mr. Kumar to reporters later in the day despite persistent requests from television reporters for the “same byte.”

On the strained relations with the RJD and the LJP, Mr. Moily said the Congress ought to be angry as it was given just three seats in Bihar by the two parties. Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal insisted that nothing should be read into the absence of Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan from Friday’s Cabinet meeting.