‘Stop sulking’, Nitish’s reply to Sharad’s ‘unfortunate’ remark

Nitish, Sharad trade charges against each other, rift within JD(U) deepens

Patna, August 1: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar might have saved his "clean" image by ending his party's ties with the "tainted" Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), but with each passing day voices of dissent within the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) is growing more and more.

After several days of silence, senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav finally broke his silence on Monday regarding Nitish's latest step.

When asked to comment on the party's decision to break away from the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar by reporters outside Parliament, Sharad said, "Whatever happened is very unfortunate, the mandate by the people was not for this."

Last week, JD(U) chief Nitish while announcing his resignation as the CM of the state decided to leave the Grand Alliance. The Grand Alliance was formed by the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress before the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015 to fight against the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The alliance proved to be successful as it won the elections with a huge margin. However, Nitish decided to end the party's ties with the alliance after deputy CM of the state and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over corruption charges.

Immediately, after his resignation as the CM, Nitish joined hands with his former adversary, the BJP, and formed a fresh government in the state.

As Nitish is in no mood to take any criticism, the CM minced no words to reply to Sharad's jibe against his decision to leave the Grand Alliance. "Stop sulking and debate in the party forum," is what Nitish reportedly said in reply to Sharad's comments.

On August 19, JD(U) leaders are all set to meet at their party forum in Patna. It is at this forum where Nitish wants Sharad to speak about his feelings about the recent political upheaval in the state.

In the party forum, the JD(U) is likely to take a call about whether or not to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

While Sharad and some of his senior JD(U) colleagues maintain that they were not aware about Nitish's plans to change sides, the CM stated that he told Sharad about forging alliance with the BJP.

In fact, Sharad was silent for several days without issuing any statement in this regard. All the 70-year-old leader was doing was tweeting against the Modi government before his open "dissent" against the party head on Monday.

OneIndia News