'He Had Sensed RJD's Plans': JD(U) Leader On Why Nitish Kumar Broke Ties With Lalu Yadav

JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar said Nitish Kumar had pre-empted attempts of RJD president Lalu Prasad to "humiliate" allies ahead of Lok Sabha polls by calling off the alliance.

Nitish Kumar's JD(U) severed ties with the RJD and went into alliance with the BJP in Bihar. ( Image Source :PTI )

A senior JD(U) leader on Wednesday revealed the reason behind Chief Minister Nitish Kumar breaking ties with the RJD and forging alliance with the BJP in Bihar.

Neeraj Kumar, MLC and chief spokesperson of the JD(U) said Nitish Kumar had pre-empted attempts of RJD president Lalu Prasad to "humiliate" allies ahead of Lok Sabha polls by calling off the alliance.

Kumar made the claim referring to the RJD riding roughshod over the Congress, a report in PTI said.

"The Congress has been a dependable ally of the RJD, though the alliance has caused it to lose its own vote share over the years. The only time the Congress saw a rise in its vote share in recent times was in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls when we too were part of that alliance," the JD(U) leader said.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad has unilaterally given party tickets to candidates for about a dozen seats in Bihar, leaving the Congress virtually blindsided.

"What type of alliance do the RJD and the Congress have that the former is giving away party tickets to people at will, paying scant regard to the interests of the latter?" Neeraj Kumar questioned.

Among the seats for which Prasad has given tickets is Aurangabad, where Congress wanted to field former MP Nikhil Kumar.

The RJD has reportedly promised ticket to JD(U) turncoat Bima Bharti from Purnea. However, former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who recently joined Congress, have got assurance from the party to be fielded in his home constituency when he merged his Jan Adhikar Party last week.

The JD(U) leader claimed that Nitish had sensed RJD's plans to humiliate allies.

"It was not for nothing that our leader Nitish Kumar had been seeking early seat-sharing in the INDIA bloc. He had sensed the RJD's plans to humiliate allies. So he taught them a lesson," Kumar said.

The JD(U) leader was referring to Nitish Kumar's exit from the opposition alliance Mahagathbandhan that robbed RJD of power and stripped Tejashwi Yadav of the deputy chief minister's post in Bihar.

"It is now for the Congress to show that it has spine. Rahul Gandhi has undertaken a country-wide padayatra, becoming the first leader to have done so since the 1990s," Neeraj Kumar added.

He further said that in the last Lok Sabha polls, it was the Congress that managed to win a seat in Bihar while the RJD, despite seeming formidable, drew a blank.

"Hopefully, the RJD will be taught a lesson by its ally in the Lok Sabha polls. Even if that does not happen, the party will be taught a lesson by the people of Bihar," the MLC said.