New Delhi: Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Tuesday claimed that the BJP’s sole agenda is to use Nitish Kumar till the Bihar assembly elections and then “discard” him as they want to install their own chief minister by forming the government through the “backdoor” with the people of the state not ready to give direct leadership to the saffron party.

In an interview with PTI on the sidelines of the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, Kumar also launched a frontal attack on the Election Commission for “speaking the language of the BJP” and said that while the poll body stated that there is no “paksh (ruling side) or “vipaksh (opposition)” for it, what it really needs is to be “nishpaksh (impartial)”.

“We want to tell the people of Bihar that the rule of votes means the rule of the common people. If you (Commission) take away the right to vote, then naturally you are turning ‘democracy’ into ‘demokursi’,” said the Congress leader, who is accompanying Gandhi on his 1,300 km yatra that will pass through more than 20 districts in Bihar and culminate with a rally in Patna on September 1. Kumar also asserted that the misconception among alliance partners and opposition parties that the Congress gaining strength would not be conducive for them has been dispelled.

He said it is in the Congress’ DNA to take everyone along, and that is why it has successfully run alliance governments, and that is now clear to everyone.

On whether the Mahagathbandhan would be able to form the government, the Congress leader said that in the last election, there was a difference of only 12,000 votes between the two alliances, and therefore, it is not right to say that the NDA is in a good position.

“Amit Shah ji had earlier said that all doors have been closed for Nitish Kumar, but again he (Shah) joined Nitish Kumar. The BJP knows that it cannot get a majority on its own. The BJP’s only agenda is to use Nitish Kumar till the elections and then discard him to install their own chief minister,” Kumar said.

“People of Bihar are still not ready to give direct leadership to the BJP, so there is an attempt to form the government through the backdoor. The more awareness we can spread and take these issues to the public, the more chances there are to form the Mahagathbandhan government,” he said.

Speaking about the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, which the opposition has been vehemently protesting against, Kumar said the “crisis” has arisen because the Election Commission has created doubts in the minds of the people through its working methods.

He said that when Rahul Gandhi held a press conference with evidence and put forward the facts, then the Election Commission said there is a problem and an SIR is being done to correct it.

He asked under whose pressure the EC was refusing to take any action over the evidence provided by Gandhi, and how the language of the poll panel became the same as that of the BJP.