Sharad Yadav is free to make his own decision, says Nitish

Nitish Kumar was speaking to media after a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Amid reports of widening rift between Janata Dal (United) leaders, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said senior leader Sharad Yadav is free to take his own decisions.

He reiterated that the party has taken a decision with everyone's consensus, 'He [Sharad Yadav] is free to make his own decisions'. He was speaking to media after a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was Kumar's first visit to the national capital after he jettisoned the alliance with the RJD and the Congress, and sealed a tie-up with the BJP on July 26.

Nitish replied a day after Sharad Yadav claimed that the original party is with him as he termed Nitish Kumar's joining hands with the BJP as "betrayal of the people's mandate".

About the meeting, he said the discussion was all about developmental issues pertaining to Bihar. ''Will come in the end of August to discuss the development of Bihar at length,'' he added.

JD(U) sources said the party is expected to announce its decision to formally join the BJP-led NDA in its national executive meeting on July 19 in Patna.

"The trust of 11 crore people who gave mandate to form the grand alliance government in Bihar was broken," Sharad Yadav told reporters at the airport on his first trip to Bihar since the end of the grand alliance.

"The agreement of 'gathbandhan' (grand alliance) was for five years which was broken... I am hurt by this. I continue to stand for the 'gathbandhan'," he said. Yadav said the grand alliance and the BJP had come out with different manifestos for the assembly election.

(With agency inputs)