Rahul was curt, said ‘no’ to Nitish’s request
more in support of Lalu than Nitish. Clearly, Nitish did not get the expected support from the Congress.”
The source also said that Nitish Kumar had, at least once, made an attempt to get an appointment with Sonia Gandhi, as he was more comfortable dealing with the Congress president than Rahul, but that the meeting could not happen as “Rahul had taken the full command of handling the Bihar crisis”. “Nitish Kumar, for some time, has been totally against Rahul Gandhi, seconding key Congress allies’ stand that Rahul Gandhi should not lead the UPA in 2019. He wanted to meet Sonia Gandhi, but somehow the meeting took place with Rahul instead, who treated him ‘coldly’,” the source said.
As the 16 July report had mentioned, “...the Congress president, who is determined not to let the Grand Alliance collapse and Nitish’s JDU join hands with old ally BJP again, has asked the Bihar CM to meet her in New Delhi...” The report had mentioned that Sonia Gandhi had told Lalu Yadav to soften his stand and consider dropping Tejashwi in order to placate Nitish. When asked whether the fact that Nitish Kumar was being increasingly seen as the joint face of the opposition for the 2019 general elections, could have influenced Rahul in not being keen about stopping him from joining hands with the BJP, the source said “it could be possible”.
After Nitish Kumar took oath on Thursday as Bihar Chief Minister with BJP’s Sushil Modi as his deputy, Rahul Gandhi stated to the media that he knew of the Bihar CM’s plan in advance. “In politics you come to know of what is going on in the minds of people. Clearly, I knew Nitishji is planning. We knew this was going on for the last three-four months... People do anything for their selfish motives. There is no principle, no credibility. They can do anything for power,” Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday.
CM Nitish Kumar has reserved his comments for a future date, pledging that he would “reply to all queries of Rahul Gandhi and others at the right time”.