‘Nitish runs sarkari party, I’m with one supported by people’

DIVIDE Former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav says he wasn’t happy with Bihar CM’s decision to leave Grand Alliance

I still stand with Mahagathbandhan that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.

Former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav indicated a possible split in the party on Thursday, openly defying Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to say he wasn’t happy with the decision to sink the Grand Alliance government and seek support from the BJP.

Yadav said in Sonepur he would go to people to ‘study the situation’ and share their anguish, roughly two weeks after Nitish resigned during a highvoltage tussle with erstwhile alliance partner Rashtriya Janata Dal over corruption allegations.

“Sarkari log nai party mein shamil ho gaye (people in government have joined a new party). The sarkari (government-led) JD(U) is being run by Nitish Kumar and I am with JD(U), which has the support of people of Bihar,” he said.

The JD(U) leader and Rajya Sabha MP declared he was still with the Grand Alliance of RJD and Congress. “I still stand with Mahagathbandhan that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years,” Yadav said on Thursday.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday had extended support to Yadav’s visit and said he (Sharad) was the ‘real JD(U), stoking talks of an imminent split. Yadav’s visit to state, his first since the JD(U) broke away from the Grand Alliance to form a new government with the BJP, has sparked talks of a possible division in the JD(U).

“The disintegration of Grand Alliance has broken the trust of 11 crore citizens of the state,” Yadav said, pointing out the competing manifestoes that the Grand Alliance and the BJP-led NDA had put out during the 2015 polls. “It’s for the first time in history of the country that the two manifestos of rival groupings have mingled.”

Yadav is said to be upset with Nitish’s dramatic switch that came after weeks of tussle over graft charges against Lalu and his son Tejashwi, also the deputy CM. The fall of the Grand Alliance government was seen as a huge blow for opposition unity, and many in Bihar feel that Nitish betrayed the popular mandate.