JD (U) snubs RJD on offer for Nitish to lead Oppn at Centre

PATNA: Janata Dal-United has dismissed senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Shivanand Tiwary’s offer to the Bihar chief minister and the party’s national president Nitish Kumar to lead the club of opposition parties in the country as it doesn’t have an acceptable leader.

Tiwary had recently made overtures to Kumar to come forward and lead the Opposition, which, he said, was in disarray after the Lok Sabha polls.

“Thank you for the offer and accepting Nitish ji’s capability as leader. But let me make it clear to all the GA leaders that JD (U) is very much the part of the NDA and the alliance is going to contest the 2020 assembly polls under his leadership in Bihar,” said JD (U)’s principal general secretary K C Tyagi.

The senior JD (U) leader said the main question of corruption on which JD (U) walked away from the Grand Alliance (GA) remained there. “Nitish Kumar’s USP has been that he has not compromised on three Cs (crime, corruption and communalism). Despite being in the NDA, he maintains the same stand and has differed with the alliance partner on several issues,” he said.

Tiwary, a former Rajya Sabha MP from JD (U) who is now the national vice-president of the RJD, had said the JD (U) was committing a blunder by continuing to be a part of the NDA. He had said that in the absence of a credible Opposition at the Centre these days, Kumar should come to national politics and unite all opposition parties as he had all along maintained his secular image.

“There is a leadership vacuum in the Opposition ranks. I have watched Nitish in politics for nearly 35 years and I can vouch he has political guts and capability to become the prime minister of the country. He should throw the NDA yoke and become the Opposition’s face at the national level,” Tiwari had suggested.

“It’s a useless proposal. Does Tiwaryji know his fate in the RJD? All his effort to create differences in the NDA will come to a nought,” said JD (U) spokesperson and IPRD minister Neeraj Kumar.

Tiwary, incidentally, is not the only leader to have thrown

the bait for Kumar. Former CM and HAM-S leader Jitan Ram Manhji too had advised Bihar CM to walk out of the NDA and “join an alternative platform of like-minded leaders.”

JD (U) sources are of the view that time is not ripe for any political churning in the state and the manner in which the party was able to raise its tally to 16 in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP makes it a natural ally for the assembly elections.

The JD (U) had contested the 2015 assembly elections in alliance with the RJD and Congress and formed the government.

The JD (U) has also announced its intention to contest assembly elections in three states of Jharkhand, Delhi and Haryana, independently. The party has opposed the Triple Talaq Bill and Article 370 in both Houses of Parliament. Also, the party has diametrically opposite stand on uniform civil code and Ram Mandir and wants the two issues to be settled either through court verdict or consensus among the stakeholders.

CONG LEADER WENT HOME FROM THE MEDIA CONFERENCE FROM WHERE HE WAS HELD