Deve Gowda India's first OBC PM, not Modi: Nitish, Lalu

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his new ally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, on Saturday said H.D. Deve Gowda was India's first prime minister from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), and hit out at BJP chief Amit Shah for claiming that Narendra Modi was the country's first OBC prime minister.

"H.D. Deve Gowda was the first OBC prime minister of the country and not Modi as claimed by Amit Shah," Nitish Kumar told the media here.

"Lack of knowledge and less awareness about any subject is dangerous," the Janata Dal-United leader said, adding that BJP leaders were "experts" in making false claims.

"BJP leaders can do anything for power. There is nothing new in Amit Shah's claim."

Former prime minister Deve Gowda is the chief of the Janata Dal-Secular.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad said Shah has no knowledge of history.

"H.D. Deve Gowda was the first prime minister from OBC. It was I who proposed his name for the top post. Modi is not at all the first OBC prime minister," he said.

"Gowda became prime minister in the late 90s, but we never propagate about his OBC origin," he said.

Lalu Prasad said Narendra Modi's 'Modh Ghanchi' caste was included in the OBC list in 2000 on recommendations of the then Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel, which was accepted by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

BJP chief Shah had said in New Delhi on Friday that it was his party that gave the maximum number of OBC chief ministers and the first prime minister in Modi.