Nitish asks partymen to refrain from war of words on key issues
As the RJD-JD(U) spat reached a crescendo, indicating an imminent showdown in Grand Alliance, chief minister Nitish Kumar summoned party spokespersons on Tuesday and asked them to refrain from getting embroiled into a war of words on the fate of alliance, or the upcoming presidential elections.
The meeting took place at Kumar’s official residence, where he asked them to refrain from escalating the row to a flashpoint. It comes a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad made a similar intervention on Monday, taking leaders mounting a personal attack on the chief minister to task and even dispensing with spokesperson Ashok Kumar Sinha, to douse the fire.
Prasad had caused a stir when he termed Kumar’s decision to support BJP-backed presidential candidate and former Bihar governor Ramnath Kovind a “historical blunder” that warranted “reconsideration”. RJD has extended support to ‘Bihar ki Beti’ Meira Kumar.
Miffed by personal attacks by RJD’s Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Bhai Birendra, who went on to dub Kumar as a “habitual betrayer”, state JD(U) president Bashistha Narayan Singh on Sunday stepped in and issued a terse warning to the alliance partner: “rein in loud mouths or be ready for a fallout”.
He also made it amply clear that “nobody” could dictate terms to the JD(U) as the party was part of a Bihar-centric alliance and was free to pursue independent line in extending support to Kovind. The JD(U) had done the same when it backed Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature, despite being NDA’s partner.
The presence of senior minister and Kumar’s confidant Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, along with four of the five party spokespersons, was indicative that Tuesday’s meeting was ‘more’ than a regular exercise of having a ‘feedback’ on the current political situation.
On Monday, all the five spokespersons, along with national secretary general KC Tyagi, had launched an onslaught on the RJD leaders demanding “nothing less than expulsion of Singh and Birendra was acceptable”.
Deputy chief minister and Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who had remained unapologetic over his oblique remark that Kumar’s backing of Kovind was “opportunism” and “such things have little shelf life”, said Grand Alliance was intact and only the RJD chief would speak on the fate of alliance from now on.
Except Neeraj Kumar, who is out of station, all the four statelevel spokespersons were present at the meeting, which included former minister Shyam Rajak, Sanjay Singh, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad and Ajay Alok.