Patna:
The insurgent Chairman of the Janata Dal (United) (JDU) Parliamentary Council, Upendra Kushwaha, demanded on Friday that the truth be revealed about a “deal” allegedly made by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with ally RJD and demanded a urgent party meeting to clear the air .
Speaking at a press conference at his official residence in Patna, Mr. Kushwaha, who is also a member of the Legislative Council, also made it clear that he will not leave the JD(U) “just because” Mr. Kumar, the Supreme Leader, asks him to to do that.
“The Chief Minister has said that I left the party three times and came back by my own will. I have to correct him. I split up and only returned twice. My first comeback was in 2009 when Kumar asked me to return to public office. My return in 2021 again followed helpless pleas from Kumar, who by then had become very vulnerable,” said the former Union minister who merged his RLSP with the JD(U) two years ago .
Mr Kushwaha also made little secret of the fear he felt while in the spotlight over Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, whom he did not name but referred to as “half the age of the Chief Minister, who is Mr. Kumar now wants to promote”.
The JD(U) leader also tried to remind Mr Kumar of personal insults by Mr Yadav on the assembly floor when the latter was the leader of the opposition.
Mr Kushwaha, whose statements to the media and on social media were denounced by the Prime Minister, defended himself saying: “I am ready to express my concerns on any party platform as desired by Mr Kumar, provided I have one get.” .
“I have long demanded that a meeting be convened of the national executive. We have matters to discuss. The party is weakening. According to Grapevine, some kind of deal has been made with the RJD. These should be discussed in party forums,” he said .
The allusion was to speculation that Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister has agreed to hand over the mantle to Mr Yadav at some point in the future, devoting his own time and energy to national politics.
“The other option before me was to speak directly to the Prime Minister. What would be the point of that? I met him in the third week of December to signal the party’s weakening. He turned me down by asking whether I was thinking of joining hands with the BJP,” Mr Kushwaha claimed.
In response to Mr Kumar’s repeated refrain that Mr Kushwaha was “free to come and go as he pleased as early as possible”, the JD(U) parliamentary council chairman said, “I am with this organization since its previous avatar, the Samata Party. I have been with this organization. will not leave just because I am ordered to”.
He also said that while he was derided by the chief minister as someone who often “comes and goes”, “the party is full of defectors, including the national president (Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan)”.
“It seems that the prime minister cannot discriminate apn (his own people) and paraaye (whose loyalties lay elsewhere). Unfortunately, such people have become his advisers. And it seems that he is led by such people, unable to make his own judgment,” Mr Kushwaha claimed.
He was also annoyed by “messages received from the party that I am not taking part in a function to be held on February 2 by a non-political organization. leaders, including the prime minister himself, I’m not saying that was wrong. But why are different standards being applied to me”.
Meanwhile, in an interesting development, expelled JD(U) leader Ajay Alok walked to Mr Kushwaha’s house after the press conference was over and said he supported the parliamentary board chief’s decision not to leave the party and accused the Chief Minister suffering from “mati bram(loss of sound judgment).
“When the party’s numbers were reduced to less than 45 in 2020, Mr. Kushwaha was provoked because his community was believed to have left the party. Now he appears redundant and is being asked to leave. Is it a political party or private property” , enraged Alok, seen as a BJP sympathizer and disgraced former National President RCP Singh.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured video of the day
Jai Jawan: Sonu Sood’s tug-of-war with soldiers