Saying that Nitish Kumar was not a capable leader was going against the collective wisdom of Modi-Shah-Nadda, senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi told News18 in response to repeated attacks against Bihar CM made by LJP chief Chirag Paswan.
LJP’s Chirag Paswan, who has said that his party’s alliance is with BJP and not with JD(U), has been repeatedly attacking Nitish Kumar over a range of issues — from not dealing with the issue of migrant labourers properly to not giving jobs to Dalits killed over the last 15 years of JD(U).
On Monday Paswan presided over a meeting of its Parliamentary board to decide whether his party would accept the leadership of Nitish Kumar and be a part of the NDA for the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
“Nitishji has publicly been declared the leader of the NDA in Bihar by none other than Amit Shahji, Narendra Modiji and JP Naddaji. If a party or a group of people don’t agree with Nitishji’s leadership they are going against the collective leadership of the BJP,” Tyagi told News18.
Responding to the barbs aimed at his party by Paswan, who has said that his party is in alliance with BJP not with JD(U), Tyagi said that BJP-JD(U)’s alliance predates many other alliances stitched together by the two parties.
“Our alliance with BJP has been in place since the time of Atalji. George Fernandes as the convenor presided over the alliance that was stitched together back in 1998,” Tyagi said.
On the other hand, he added, JD(U) has not been in a direct alliance with the LJP since 1998. “Every election we have fought since then, in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2015, we have fought it with BJP not with LJP. Yes, in the last Lok Sabha polls we were in alliance with the LJP by virtue of it being in alliance with the BJP, but that’s as far as the history of our political alliance goes,” Tyagi said.
He said that if there were problems within the gathbandhan those could be discussed in party fora behind closed doors but to speak out against the declared leader of the NDA openly was giving ammunition to the opposition.
“If you continue to speak against Nitishji then RJD could tomorrow say that if their own alliance partners can’t accept them, how will Bihar accept them. So, there is no point giving them any ammunition. At the time of elections it makes sense to accept the trusted and accepted leadership of Nitish Kumarji,” Tyagi added.
A number of reasons have been attributed to the increasing belligerence of Chirag Paswan towards Nitish Kumar, with whom Paswan, by his own admission, has not spoken in almost a year. Some say that Paswan is being used by the BJP as a counterweight. Others say that Paswan has become ambitious because he sees himself as the next Chief Minister of the state. And there is the issue of seat sharing as well, with LJP staking claim on 143 out of 243 seats.
In the 2015 assembly elections, the LJP won just 2 seats, though all six of its candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections managed to get elected to the Parliament. LJP has been asking for seats in accordance with its performance in the last general elections though it is being reportedly told that seats would be given as per the performance in the last assembly polls.
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