Free to leave: Nitish Kumar rebuffs Pavan Kumar who questioned Delhi alliance with BJP

Patna, Jan 23: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday broke his silence on senior JD(U) leader, Pawan Varma, publicly calling him out on his stand on ally BJP and the decision to extend the alliance to the Delhi election.

"If anyone has any issues then the person can discuss it within the party or at party meetings, but such kind of public statements are surprising. He can go and join any party he likes, my best wishes," the Chief Minister said on Thursday, two days after Varma wrote a letter on the BJP alliance for the Delhi elections.

Disgruntled Pavan Varma had sought "ideological clarity" from party president Nitish Kumar over aligning with the BJP in the Delhi elections, referring to the Bihar chief minister's "private apprehensions" on how the saffron party is leading the country.

Varma, JD(U) national General Secretary, had questioned Kumar for aligning with the BJP outside Bihar in Delhi despite having expressed apprehensions 'in private' about the BJP-RSS leading the nation into a 'dangerous space'.

'On more than one occasion, you have expressed your apprehensions about the BJP-RSS combine.

'In my first meeting with you in Patna in August 2012, even before I had resigned from the IFS, you had spoken to me at length and with conviction on why Narendra Modi and his policies are inimical for the country,' Varma, one of the most articulate spokespersons of a political party, said.

In comments that may embarrass Kumar, Varma claimed that the JD(U) leader, even after joining hands with the BJP again in 2017, had confessed to him how the current saffron party leadership had 'humiliated' him.

'You mentioned on more than one occasion that the BJP was leading India into a dangerous space. It was your personal view, as conveyed to me, that the BJP is destroying institutions and that there is a need for democratic and socialist forces within the country to regroup, a task for which you actually assigned a senior party official,' Varma added, without disclosing who the JD(U) leader was.